Looks like the lockdown has offered the film fraternity much time to introspect and reflect and turn writers. After the likes of Saif Ali Khan, Gulzar, Gauri Ali Khan announcing their memoirs, another real-life celebrity story is in the offing for readers. Penguin Random House India took to social media to announce that they would be publishing Neena Gupta’s autobiography, Sach Kahun Toh. This intimate account of her personal and professional journey will be published in the summer of 2021.
This memoir will chronicle her childhood days in Delhi’s Karol Bagh, through her time at the National School of Drama, moving to Bombay in the 1980s and dealing with the struggles to find work. It will detail the big milestones in her life, her unconventional pregnancy and single parenthood, and successful second innings in Bollywood. A candid, self-deprecating portrait of the person behind the persona, it will talk about her life’s many choices, battling stereotypes, then and now, and how she may not be as unconventional as people think her to be.
Commenting on writing her first book, Neena Gupta says, ‘In the first half of 2020, when the country went into lockdown to battle the Covid-19 crisis, I found myself in Mukteshwar, a beautiful, scenic village in Uttarakhand. It was here I realised I had nothing to do other than battle my own thoughts. I started to reflect and relive my life’s journey. Taking long, winding walks every day, appreciating the sounds of the birds and basking in the chill of the mountain air, I asked myself, “Why should I write a book? What do I have to say that could help and inspire someone?”
Neena feels that she has been festered with so many incidents that have made and broken her, and that she needed to release them through a creative outlet. “Reflecting about my life, my journey and the things I’ve had to overcome will make me feel better and lighter. Secondly and more importantly, through the book I also want people to know that despite my flaws, my broken relationships and my circumstances in life, if I can get up, get going and look really good while doing so, so can you!’” she added.
Neena Gupta, for the unversed, has won a National Award, been a film-maker, producer and television personality/host. She started her career in Delhi’s booming theatre scene in the 1980s but decided to switch to film and television after acting in the 1982 Academy award-winning Gandhi. She went on to star in several critically acclaimed television shows such as Khandaan and Mirza Ghalib.
She also worked extensively in art-house and independent films such as Mandi, Trikal and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. Neena has directed, produced and acted in several television shows, including Saans, Siski and Son Pari. She recently acted in Badhai Ho, Shubh Mangal Zyaada Saavdhan, Panchayat and The Last Colour. Her latest show is Netflix’s Masaba Masaba with her daughter Masaba Gupta where they play versions of themselves in a playful, fictional peek into their lives in fashion and film.
