Bollywood actress-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar recently stated in an interview that she did not get any credit for her acting in 'Rangeela' back in the day.
In an interview with ETimes, Urmila revealed that her performance was dismissed as 'sex appeal and had ‘nothing to do with acting’.
She played an aspiring actor in the film, which also stars Aamir Khan and Jackie Shroff in the lead roles. It was directed by Ram Gopal Varma.
During the recent interview, she said, "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?"
The actress said that appearing sexy also demands acting and that she 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. Someday, I’d love to take their names and what all they called me. Even after being part of such a huge hit, forget awards, I didn’t have a decent word written about me."
Urmila said that despite the success of 'Rangeela', not a single ‘decent word’ was written about her and ‘everything was given credit’, from her clothes to her hair, but not her performance.
She further stated that sex appeal is an integral part of every woman and it doesn’t necessarily come from her hair, lipstick or saree. "It could be in her personality; from the way she is. It’s not something separate like garam masala, which is sprinkled on a dish. My character in 'Rangeela' was a blend of innocence and beauty," she told ETimes.
Urmila started her career as a child actor in films such as 'Karm' and 'Masoom'. Later, she starred in superhit films such as 'Judaai', 'Satya', 'Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya', 'Bhoot' and 'Ek Hasina Thi' among others.
She joined politics with the Congress in 2019. However, she quit the party after a few months of joining and later joined the Shiv Sena.
