Sushmita Sen recalls 'calling up' production houses for work amid career break

Sushmita Sen was on a long career hiatus before she appeared in the web series Aarya, the first season of which was released in 2020. Before that, the actress was seen in sporadic appearances in a few movies. Her last prominent on-screen appearance was in the 2015 Bengali film Nirbaak. In a new interview, the actress recalled the time when she decided to get back to acting and the process that she underwent to get some work. 

Sushmita Sen recalls calling people to ask for work 

In an interview with Mid-Day, Sushmita Sen recalled the time when she called several production houses to ask them for work. The actress reflected on her decision to come back to acting and stated, “I called up the heads of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hotstar. And, I said 'My name is Sushmita Sen. I am an actor, I used to be one anyway. And, I want to come back and work.” 

In the same conversation, the Main Hoon Na actress also addressed the criticism she got for playing the role of a transgender in her recent film Taali. The actress claimed, “I was not okay with Taali until Gauri Sawant herself wanted me to do the role.” Critics and a section of views believed that the makers should have got a transgender person to headline the film that is centered around the life of the community. 

Sushmita Sen opens up on working in OTT 

For eight years, Sushmita explored different acting opportunities, hoping to find the perfect fit. None felt right until Aarya came along, like the universe finally giving her the role she'd been waiting for. Elaborating on this, Sushmita said: "I was in an eight-year hiatus, sitting there and thinking, 'I don't like this, I do not like that. By default of knowing what you do not want, what I do want was being created, and that is where the manifestation comes in. I did not realise that the OTT space was creating content the way it is now. I had the initial taste of it very close to when I did Aarya. Until then, I was like, 'the big screen, I will only work on the big screen,' and then this happened. I was sitting there thinking, if they are making content like this, this is what I want,” she shared.

Sushmita added: “So, the platform then is not the key factor, the content is, the makers are, the team is. I started manifesting that and was waiting for something like this. It was author-backed, had a director like Ram Madhvani, a crew like this – this has been a God-gifted team for me to learn." 

(With inputs from IANS)