Shilpa Shetty opens up about not getting her dues, says, 'I am surviving because of my songs'

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Shilpa Shetty's upcoming film, Sukhee, will see her play a Punjabi housewife who has lost her sense of self in taking up the family's responsibilities. She is reminded of her old, fun-loving personality when she reconnects with her friends during a college reunion.

Directed by Sonal Joshi, the film has a bunch of women at the fore, most prominently Shilpa, who plays the main character, and her bestie, played by Kusha Kapila.

In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Shilpa, who is all set for the release of her upcoming film, opened up about how she felt typecast. The actress said, "I never got the tag of an actor. I always got relegated, or rather typecast, into being just a glamorous actor, which is also a great niche to have because today I can proudly say that I can do this (pointing at the poster of her film Sukhee), but can you become glamorous? I can say proudly that I picked from whatever was offered to me, and I survived."

Speaking about surviving due to the popularity of her songs, Shilpa continued, "I have had a long career with so many lows that I used to wonder, ‘Why didn't I get offered this role or why was I never offered a film with big banners?' Whatever I have achieved is by working in small films with big actors. I did small characters, and no matter whether my films worked or not, all my songs were hits. I am surviving because of my songs."

"There are films of the 90s which I worked in, and the producers would say, ‘Oh, we incurred losses.' So, I didn't get the remaining fees also. That time was very different," Shilpa shared.

In a recent interaction with midday.com Shilpa opened up about her family's reaction to the film. The actress shared that her mother cried after watching the film.

Apart from Shilpa Shetty and Kusha Kapila, the film also stars Amit Sadh, Chaitannya Choudhury, Dilnaz Irani, Pavleen Gujral, Kiran Kumar, and Vinod Nagpal. The film will be released in theatres on September 22.