The lockdown is back in Mumbai. And veteran actress Asha Parekh is relieved. She doesn’t like stepping out of her home.
“It isn’t safe,” she says sadly. “It isn’t even sane, the way people were jostling one another on the streets the cars were honking and crowding the roads as if the virus was over. It was very frightening.”
Ashaji wishes to advise Mumabaiyites to follow the pandemic protocol. “It isn’t over. Far from it. We need to follow the guidelines if we are to get over this.”
Ashaji made it back to her home in Mumbai just before the lockdown. “I was in New Zealand when the virus erupted. Everyone back home in Mumbai was panicking, ‘Ghar aa jao ghar aa jao.’ I finally flew back on March 20. And the lockdown began on March 22. I made it just in time. I shudder to think what life would have been like if I were stuck far away in a foreign country. Ghar toh aakhir ghar hi hota hai (home is home).”
Ashaji spends her time listening to a lot of songs and watching movies. Does she see her own movies?
“Not at all! Never ! I don’t like seeing myself on screen at all. I find a hundred things wrong with my performance and looks. I’m very self-critical,” she confesses.
Which of her films does she recommend to the audience? “Among my own films, I find Bharosa, Do Badan, Kati Patang and Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki tolerable.”
She wonders when shooting will resume. “And how will they shoot romantic scenes and action scenes? Suddenly the world has changed. And so has the norms of living.”