Urmila Matondkar recently revealed that she was not given credit as an actor for the film Rangeela and her performance was dismissed as ‘sex appeal’. Along side Urmila, stars Aamir Khan and Jackie Shroff were also featured.
However, Urmila told Times Of India, “Post Rangeela, people said that everything I did was about sex appeal and nothing to do with acting. How can the song, Hai Rama, happen without a person being a performer? Is doing a tear-jerking scene only acting? Appearing sexy also demands acting. I was not playing Miss Nothing in the film. My character of the girl-next-door transforms through each song of the film, which the critics didn’t understand.”
The Rangeela actress als0 said, “Girls who gave 13 flops, girls who were said to look like ‘boys’ with nothing woman-like about them, girls who did double meaning songs with heroes… were considered actors. But for me, being in front of the camera was a spiritual experience. To have Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar sing for me was by itself a victory. I didn’t need awards.”
For the unversed, Urmila Matondkar started her career as a child artist, in films such as Karm and Masoom. Subsequently she was starred in films such as Judaai, Satya, Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya, Bhoot and Ek Hasina Thi.
