Happy Birthday Sushmita Sen: Miss Universe at 18, actor at 21, adopted daughter at 24, but always a rule breaker
On Sushmita Sen’s birthday, here’s looking back at her career graph that’s full of unconventional choices, just like her personal life.
Sushmita Sen has a somewhat curiously perplexing career graph in Bollywood. She has done it all. After beginning her career as Ms Universe, she ensured that she wasn’t going to be just another glam woman in the film industry — there were enough of those. She didn’t back away from doing such roles, but when she did, she made sure that she would also be remembering for a completely different performance later. After playing a stalker in her debut Dastak, followed by the iconic Dilbar track in Sirf Tum and later she also attempted comedy with David Dhawan’s film, Biwi No. 1 where she played the quintessential other woman. She was the definition of glamorous and stunning, almost dangerously close to being slotted as the vamp, the rich and powerful woman who would inevitably get rejected for the ‘simpler, down-to-earth and middle-class woman’.
However, just like her personal life, Sushmita’s professional life was full of twists. While many 90’s heroines struggled with the 2000s, she made the transition and decided to take up some unusual roles, while keeping up with the old masala. She starred in Aankhein, the reincarnation drama Tumko Na Bhool Payenge and then did Filhaal, a film on surrogacy. She cast off the glam when she starred in the crime thriller Samay, a taut film that saw a new side to her acting skills. Leaving aside the flamboyant and vampish melodrama, Sushmita played the role of a cop, and a mother, who is on the case to track down a serial killer. It’s in the pivotal climax scene where Sushmita performs the most heart-wrenching scene of her career, as she realises that her daughter might just be a victim too, and without breaking character and going overboard with sobbing, she decides to put an end to the killer’s career. It’s perhaps one of Sushmita’s most impactful performances in her career, even more so that her current success, Aarya.
Sushmita has had many hits and misses, but whatever she’s done, she’s always managed to leave an impact. It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the role of the desi Miss Chandni in Main Hoon Na now. It was a role where she managed to blend both sensuality and comedy with perfection. It’s 2022 now, and Sushmita struck gold with two seasons of Aarya, where she played the role of a vengeful mother and has another web series in the pipeline, which will see her as transgender activist Shree Gauri Sawant.
Sushmita never faded out of the limelight, even when her films didn’t do well or if she took a sabbatical. A lot has to do with Sushmita’s own personality, the side she portrays to the public and the choices she has made in life. At the age of 24, she adopted Renee, and then later Alisah in 2010. She has always been breezily open about her relationships, including model Rohman Shawl, even when it ended in 2021, reassuring fans that they would always be friends. Earlier this year, there was a torrential discussion after Lalit Modi declared that he was in a relationship with her. Allegations were hurled at Sushmita and she was attacked for being a ‘gold-digger’.
Without addressing the actual relationship, in a rather dignified manner, Sushmita called out those for calling her so, and wrote a gracefully snarky post saying that she doesn’t need someone to buy diamonds, she can do so herself. She ensured that she wasn’t going to be reduced to the sum of her relationships, a mother figure, or anything that Bollywood wished to label her as. There’s a tinge of mystery that surrounds her curious magnanimity, and she keeps her followers guessing about her next move—just like her choices in films.
News Source:- The Indian EXPRESS
