In an exclusive interview, veteran actress Hema Malini recalls how she was introduced to politics by Vinod Khanna.
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00:00 Somebody who was so shy to begin with, you always said you were shy at the beginning.
00:05 You have flowered into a person who can give a speech, you can address a rally.
00:10 Yeah.
00:11 I mean, isn't that a fantastic transformation?
00:13 By transformation is good, it naturally it happens.
00:17 You are put into it, then you have to do it, you have to swim and come out of it.
00:23 That is the situation, then you start learning everything.
00:26 Now as a politician, every now and then there is you have to speak, you have to give a bhashan
00:31 dena hai, then it's more than, film acting is different, you know, you are given, dialogues
00:39 are given and then you are projecting that particular character.
00:43 Here you are Hemamalini and you have to speak about a few things.
00:47 So it's a little difficult.
00:49 Challenging.
00:50 But challenging it is.
00:52 So you said you were put into it, so you had to do it.
00:55 So how were you put into politics?
00:59 That is because Vinod Khanna ji unki wajah se, he was contesting from Gurdaspur, so he
01:07 wanted me to, yeah, aap mere liye campaign kar rahe ho, mujhe, no, no, no, I don't know.
01:14 Then again my mother, come on, you have to do it.
01:17 I said, why, what, every time you want me to do it.
01:20 What do I know about politics?
01:21 I'm not interested at all.
01:23 Mujhe nahi jaana hai.
01:24 Kaha udhar, somewhere in Punjab I had to go.
01:27 She said nahi.
01:28 And then she was a big fan of Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji.
01:33 So unka party hai, Bharati Janta Party, you must go for that.
01:38 You know, she had a beautiful, lovely liking for the whole party and all those leaders.
01:44 She then, what am I going to speak?
01:46 So she wrote beautiful speech for me in Hindi.
01:49 She was Hindi mein bahut nipunth thi mamma.
01:53 So I, those speeches I gave and then Vinod Khanna, of course, he helped me.
01:59 And then uske baad toh, sab log peeche pad gaya, udhar aao, udhar aao karte.
02:04 Then they gave me Rajya Sabha also.
02:06 I was nominated na, for five, six years.
02:11 My God, what experience, meeting all those big, big shots.
02:17 Aapko kabhi laga nahi ki main kya kar rahi ho yahaan?
02:19 Mujhe lagta tha ki main kya kar rahi ho, lekin karna hai toh, you are there to better learn.
02:26 Then many people used to come and help me also.
02:28 Aajiye aap iske vishay mein baad kijiye.
02:31 Then I started liking it so much because so many things about our world economy, humare
02:37 Hindustan ke baare mein, kya kya problems hai, whatever is happening, you know.
02:42 You start, otherwise you are in the film, you are only concentrating in your acting,
02:47 that role yeh karna hai, yahaan pe shooting mein jana hai, that's all.
02:50 You are not actually looking into the other side of life.
02:55 So that I started understanding, how people are suffering, how people are looting, you
03:00 know, all kind of various things are happening.
03:04 Then I took interest, then I said, now next I will contest from Mathura if I am given.
03:11 Aachha, that was your choice.
03:13 Yeah, that was my choice.
03:14 Because I felt it's such a coincidence because I know that when you were very young, you
03:19 were in love with Krishna, Lord Krishna.
03:22 And Mathura is your constituency.
03:23 And you did a film called Meera and you did a dance band called Meera.
03:33 I am coming from a Vaishnava family, Iyengar family.
03:37 So my father does puja for Lord Vishnu always.
03:41 To Bhagwan ke pratna, puja, yeh usi mein jata hai.
03:46 My childhood I have watched him doing all this.
03:48 So naturally you will also be following that footstep.
03:51 So then when I started learning dance, in dance also it's a divine, the divine art,
03:58 our classical Bharatanatyam.
03:59 So usme bhi kitne shlok vagara hai, which my father used to recite in the puja room.
04:06 All those and I am dancing.
04:08 So he was also wondering, arey iske upar dance kiya tumne?
04:11 I said, yeah.
04:12 So that is how the connection happens.
04:15 And then you culminates in your going to Mathura and becoming…
04:19 Mathura, because then lot of devotees used to call me to perform my dance ballet and
04:25 all.
04:26 Then ISKCON, they took me to Mathura and then showed me everything.
04:30 I loved it so much.
04:31 So nice.
04:32 It is exciting.
04:33 I was very excited.
04:34 So you felt a connection with your mother.
04:35 Connection, yeah.
04:36 Nice, I used to feel.
04:37 Then when the Rajya Sabha, my term got over, then the next they said, you fight election.
04:46 From my party they were saying, I don't want to do all that.
04:50 But at that time, Dharamji had become an MP from Bikaner and he was finding it very difficult
04:58 to do, you know, because it was a very faraway place.
05:02 So I wanted to experience how is it to be an MP from Lok Sabha, because Lok Sabha means
05:09 you have to be with the public all the time.
05:12 My whole life I was with the public, performing and like while you are acting and your film
05:18 is released, watched by public.
05:19 But at the same time, you are working in a film means a hundred people are there.
05:26 You know, so the connection is with the people, not with too many.
05:31 But this is from villages.
05:33 Mathura is a place where it is so many villages on there, all are, Braj, Braj hai, Braj Mandal.
05:41 So going there and talking to them, understanding their problems, it was very exciting for me.
05:48 So I wanted to fight the election.
05:51 When they offered me, I said, if you are giving my seat from Mathura, I would love to do it.
05:57 So that's how they gave me.
05:58 So that's how Mathura.
05:59 So will you be contesting a third time in 2024?
06:02 If my party wants me to do.
06:04 You will.
06:05 Okay.
06:06 Then you're ready for it.
06:07 But it's supposed to be the age is the limitation.
06:10 75.
06:11 Yeah.
06:12 I can't even believe that I'm going to become so much.
06:15 Yeah, I know.
06:16 Yeah, that's right.
06:17 Yeah.
06:18 I just said when I was in my 50s, I did Baghban.
06:22 So 20 years ke upar ho gaya ho karke.
06:25 Yes.
06:26 So that's what I was talking to my brother the other day.
06:31 I said, I feel very funny because they say I'm so much.
06:36 I don't believe that I am so much.
06:37 You know, I don't I don't think I'm that because my behavior, my mindset is all around 30 to
06:44 40 year old.
06:45 That is how it is.
06:46 I'm not behaving like one.
06:48 Like a 70 year old.
06:49 75 year old or something.
06:51 I don't want to also.
06:54 But you have to accept every year passes one year.
06:57 You have to become older.
06:59 That's right.
07:00 Yeah.
07:01 Yeah.
07:02 Yeah.
07:05 (dramatic music)