19 December,2015 07:00 AM IST | | Aastha Atray Banan
Shilpa Shirodkar returns to acting on a television show as obsessed mother — not a character the mom to a 12-year-old identifies with
Shilpa Shirodkar
"I am chilled mom in real life, so to play someone obsessed with her son didn't come easy," says Shilpa Shirodkar, an actress from the 90s, who audiences remember from Hum, Gajagamini and Khuda Gawah.
Pic/Nimish Dave
Shirodkar quit Bollywood in 2000, married Aparesh Ranjit, a banker, and lived across the Netherlands, New Zealand and London. She has spent the last 12 years being mother to daughter Anushka.
In 2013, Shirodkar made a brief appearance on the small screen in Ek Mutthi Aasmaan, and now, she returns with her new show, Silsila Pyar Ka, next month.
Shirodkar, who comes from a family of actors - her mother was Marathi actress Meenakshi Shirodkar, and she is sister to former Miss India and actress Namrata Shirodkar - returned to India and acting when her parents passed away two years ago.
"We [couple] became globetrotters of sorts. We were far from home, the language and culture was different, but we made do," she says, adding she had never hoped to return to the glamour industry. But since that was the only thing she says she is good at, destiny, Shirodkar thinks, had her return.
"My husband and I set up a production house and made a Marathi movie, but it tanked and we had to shut shop." But soon, TV came calling.
Unlike most movie stars who think of television as a step down, Shirodkar says it's the perfect platform for a good actor. "TV is actually more creative than the movies. It's performance-based, nothing else matters." She remembers the words of a one of her directors, who said, TV is about conviction. If you believe inthe role, the wrong will start seeming right.
"In Silsila Pyar Ka, I play Janaki Tiwari, an affluent entrepreneur in Bhopal, madly attached to her son, Raunak. Leave aside a love interests, she doesn't even like him hanging out with friends," laughs the 41-year-old. Right now though, she is busy raising her own teenage daughter.
Being a part-time mom doesn't allow her to contemplate a comeback to films. "When you go away for long stretches, like I have, everything changes. New gangs and cliques are formed. It's very hard to break in," she says, adding, "but doing TV may open up new avenues. People may take notice. For now, I am just focusing on being an obsessed mother, on screen."
