Neena Gupta recalls the time she came to Mumbai with her then boyfriend and cooked at Prithvi theatre; says, 'He would tell me, tu naukrani banne aayi hai?' - Exclusive

Neena Gupta has been in the industry for about 40 years and looks like she’s in the best phase of her career. However, she also went through a rough patch when she dropped a post on social media and asked people to give her work. The actress was not really scared of how people will react, though it was a very impulsive choice to do so. While promoting her latest film, ‘To stay in my mind‘ with Jackie ShroffNeena spoke to ETimes about her struggling days and what made her put out a post on Instagram.
“When I put that post, I had 11,000 followers. A lot of media people spread the news about me that I’ve shifted to Delhi after I got married and I don’t live in Mumbai. But it was far from truth. I was very much here. People in the industry thought that she doesn’t work now. People used to ask me, ‘

Are you, when did you come to Mumbai?

Are you still working?’ I once went to a director’s office and the assistant asked me, ‘Hi, when did you come to Bombay?’ I came home and was so angry and upset that I posted this.

I shouldn’t post in anger but I did.

(One shouldn’t send any message or make any post in anger, but I did it).

Masaba hurt me the most

(I was scared the most about how my daughter Masaba Gupta would react), but Masaba wrote such an emotional note. I went crying. Everyone started appreciating it.”
Neena also recalled the time when she came to Mumbai in 1981 from Delhi with her then boyfriend. “I told everyone,

There is shame in asking for money, there is no shame in asking for work.

(I’m not asking people for money, I’m asking people for work and I’m not embarrassed about that). When I came to Mumbai, I used to make

bharta

at Prithvi cafe so that I get free dinner there. I had come here from Delhi with my boyfriend because I didn’t have the guts to come alone. So my boyfriend would tell me, ‘

Shame on you, you have become a Bombay maid. Have you come here to do this?’

He asked me for cigarette money and he told me like this that he was going to earn dinner after working.

. (My boyfriend would tell me, ‘Shame on you! Have you come to Mumbai to be a servant and cook meals?’ He would ask money from me for his cigarettes and yet tell me that I should be ashamed of earning my dinner by working hard).
But Neena never had any embarrassment towards doing any kind of work. “I think I was also okay to do any kind of work at NSD (National School Of Drama). We used to do everything – right from sweeping the floor to everything. At my place while growing up also, my mother was a Gandhian. We didn’t have a servant. We used to do everything at home ourselves. I’m not shy to do any kind of work.”
Neena and Jackie’s film ‘Mast Mein Rehna Ka’ has just released on OTT.