To celebrate Sushmita Sen's birthday, we're unveiling an exclusive 1999 video featuring the essence of the actress. In this clip, Sushmita Sen explores her transition into the film industry following her triumph as Miss Universe. She fervently shares insights into her venture into acting, offering a glimpse into the driving motivations that influenced her career path.
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00:00 I never wanted to become an actress.
00:02 I am so bad. I see myself on TV.
00:05 How can I do this?
00:06 I can't dance in front of a tree. I would never do it.
00:10 People who read your articles,
00:13 they don't hate me.
00:16 They hate your image.
00:18 I want them to understand that I am as bad as you are.
00:22 And as good as you are.
00:25 I can make two more films here or ten more films.
00:29 These films will always be there.
00:31 They are not time-bound.
00:32 When we ask for something,
00:37 which we have been asking for 15 years,
00:40 that one day we will become something in life,
00:42 that one day someone will ask for our autograph,
00:45 someone will take our pictures,
00:47 at that time we didn't know that everything comes with a price.
00:51 We only knew that this could happen.
00:54 Then, when we got all that,
00:57 we got to know the price.
00:59 And then you have to value it.
01:02 Is what you got more than what you paid for it?
01:07 What I got is more than what I paid for it.
01:10 When people write about me,
01:13 there are two things.
01:15 First, I like it.
01:17 I wanted this. It's bad or good, whatever it is.
01:21 Second, when people write about me,
01:26 which we call an image,
01:27 there is an image of Sushmita Sen,
01:29 there is an image of XYZ.
01:32 So, the people who read your articles,
01:35 they don't hate me.
01:38 They hate the image you have made.
01:40 So, I don't take it seriously.
01:43 An image changes every day.
01:45 Someone writes a good article,
01:47 it becomes good.
01:49 Someone writes bad, it becomes bad.
01:51 But that person is not changing.
01:53 That image is changing.
01:54 And I took a lot of time to understand that.
01:56 But today I understood that.
01:59 I don't feel bad at all.
02:00 The day you stop writing about me,
02:02 I will start feeling bad.
02:04 What do you want to achieve?
02:05 Eventually, I want to achieve something
02:09 that is not bounded by time.
02:11 Everything I have done in my life, I'll tell you.
02:14 Like Miss India, it was for one year.
02:17 Miss Universe, it was for one year.
02:19 That year is mine.
02:20 It's 1994, but it was for one year.
02:23 I want to do something that is always mine.
02:26 Something that is not time-bound.
02:29 That's one of the reasons why I love cinema.
02:31 It's because I can make two more films here,
02:34 or ten more films.
02:35 These films will always be there.
02:38 They are not time-bound.
02:39 Be it a flop, a hit, whatever it is,
02:42 it's history, it's always there.
02:44 That's one of the reasons why I love cinema so much.
02:46 Did you come to films just for this
02:48 or you wanted to do it from the beginning?
02:51 I never wanted to become an actress.
02:53 I'm so bad, I'll tell you the truth.
02:56 I used to watch it on TV and wonder how I could do it.
02:59 How could I do all this,
03:02 I would never do it.
03:04 I used to talk a lot.
03:06 I guess that is the reason why God said,
03:08 "Come and do it yourself."
03:10 And I realized when I joined the industry
03:12 that it takes a lot more intelligence to do that,
03:14 intelligently,
03:16 than I thought watching on TV how it looked.
03:19 But I didn't want to become an actress.
03:21 It just happened to me,
03:23 it just happened to me as I went along.
03:25 I have no complaints.
03:27 I'm really enjoying what I'm doing.
03:29 Sometimes I get bored with the roles I do.
03:31 So that upsets me.
03:33 But I know that sometimes you have to grace
03:35 so that you can choose black and white later.
03:38 So, I'm also gracing myself.
03:41 And the second thing is that...
03:43 when we were offered acting,
03:48 we asked Mahesh Bhatt,
03:50 "How do you know that we can do acting?"
03:53 You know?
03:54 So, Bhatt said, "Because your job is to be an actress
03:57 and my job is to get you to act, so I'll do it."
03:59 You know?
04:00 So, that confidence helped me later on.
04:04 -I must catch you sweating. -Yeah.
04:07 Smile.
04:12 You see?
04:14 So...
04:18 Okay.
04:19 And speak close to the camera.
04:22 Earlier, you wanted to be a journalist.
04:24 -Yeah. -You never thought you'd do it.
04:26 Yeah, see, the thing is,
04:28 why I wanted to be a journalist.
04:30 From the time I was 15 years old,
04:31 I loved writing.
04:33 I still love writing.
04:35 My English vocabulary is very limited.
04:37 That's why I write in simple English.
04:40 I think my poetry should be understood by 11-year-olds.
04:45 They should understand.
04:47 I write a lot of poetry.
04:48 So, a lot of people used to come and say,
04:50 "Why don't you write for a newspaper or a magazine?"
04:53 When people published articles, I found it very interesting
04:56 that a journalist, in any power, has so much power.
05:00 They can change a public opinion the way people think forever.
05:05 But just writing whatever they do write, you know?
05:08 And I love the sense of power.
05:10 That's what I've always wanted to have. Power.
05:13 And I said, "This is great. This is a perfect profession."
05:16 Then I became Miss India.
05:19 And I started meeting the press.
05:22 Mainline Press.
05:23 They treated me wonderfully.
05:25 Not because they wrote well about me.
05:26 It's because I published what I said.
05:29 I didn't publish anything else.
05:31 And then, slowly, I started reading more press.
05:36 And I said, "When a person works,
05:39 "it's either for work or for passion."
05:43 A lot of you write for passion.
05:46 But you don't always sell what you write for passion.
05:48 Because you need elements to sell.
05:51 And you can't put too much passion in what you write for work.
05:54 Because the editor will scold you.
05:56 And I've seen this with my own eyes.
05:59 So, I didn't want to write to sell it.
06:01 I didn't want to write to make someone happy.
06:04 I still like to write. I still write.
06:07 But I've never printed anything.
06:10 God willing, if someday I get a chance,
06:12 I want to print a small book for maybe children
06:14 with all my poetry in it.
06:15 That's that.
06:17 As you said, all the journalists in the world
06:25 have written in your favour.
06:27 Not all of them.
06:28 But as soon as you became a film,
06:32 most of the journalists here
06:34 have asked you personal questions,
06:36 your thoughts, your thoughts.
06:37 How do you feel about such questions?
06:39 For the first time.
06:40 Look, as they say in English, I'm a free soul.
06:45 I was like this, I am like this.
06:47 And I hope I never change.
06:50 I've never thought that it's necessary
06:54 that a person, because he's a celebrity overnight,
06:57 or he's given so much light to everyone,
06:59 that everyone is looking at him all the time,
07:01 that he should sit properly, talk properly,
07:03 and always sit properly.
07:06 Yes, it's true that we have a light on us,
07:08 but we are just as human as you are,
07:11 and as much as anyone else.
07:12 And we never hid that.
07:14 We never wanted, and we still don't,
07:16 that people think that Sushmita Sen is so great,
07:20 that she's so good,
07:23 because I want them to understand
07:26 that I'm as bad as you are,
07:28 and as good as you are.
07:30 I don't have any speciality.
07:32 I said this when I won Miss Universe,
07:35 that kids who take a role model,
07:38 that Sushmita, I want to be Miss Universe.
07:41 We want to be Miss Universe.
07:42 I want to do what you've done.
07:44 And even at that point I said,
07:46 "Don't put me on a pedestal."
07:48 I'm going to make a lot of mistakes in the future,
07:50 because I don't want you to put me on a pedestal.
07:53 Let me be with myself, that's enough.
07:55 And respect me by being close to me,
07:56 it'll feel even better.
07:58 So that's why we never used to
08:00 give sweetly, or sweetness, sugar-coated statements.
08:05 When we were angry, we expressed our anger.
08:08 When we were happy, we expressed our happiness.
08:11 And we always do.
08:12 Some people don't like us, some don't.
08:14 You can make everyone happy.
08:17 ( music playing )
08:19 [Music]