It won't be wrong to say that Supriya Pathak is Bollywood's latest adorable onscreen mother. The versatile actress – daughter of Dina Pathak, sister of Ratna Pathak Shah and wife of Pankaj Kapur, has been enjoying her stint as a mother on screen. She played a nurse Sister D’Souza in Toofan, a homemaker in the Pawan Malhotra, Ranvir Shorey-Starrer Tabbar. She also played Taapsee Pannu’s mom in Rashmi Rocket, among others.
“Of course, I am doing more interesting work. I am being offered more interesting roles, and the roles are just getting better. I am in an interesting stage in my career and having good fun in my life. Because of my age, I will be the mother or the grandmother or the older bhabhi in the scheme of things in the films — but what I think is that there are so many kinds of mothers in the world,” Surpiya shares.
“If I am just concentrating on mothers of Gujarat, I am trying only to create different women and tell their stories as best as I can. Bhanuben in Rashmi Rocket was a strong woman who was very righteous. I have played a stronger woman and a mother in many other films,” Supriya adds. Before Supriya debuted in the Shyam Benegal directed film Kalyug with Shashi Kapoor and Rekha – she had tried out as an announcer on All India Radio, and akin to how an Amitabh Bachchan was rejected – she didn’t make it. But then, once Kalyug was a hit she got an offer to host a show which she couldn’t take up.
Recently she managed to use her voice for an audio show called Buri Nazar. “I don’t know much about audio shows and podcasts, but back in our times, we had a thing called radio. We used to listen to many things, but then television came, and radio became a not that important part of our lives. Things have moved on,” Supriya says.
The actress was not aware of the popularity of podcasts until she was approached to do one. “I had not known about the new podcast or the new audio stories. I heard a lot of them — stories for children when the audio cassettes came out. But now, the entire market is opening up, and a platform gave me something to do. We had Hawa Mahal in those days on radio when we heard plays that were enacted by various people. I used to have that as a memory. When we did the Buri Nazar episodes, it came back. I loved doing it, and it was great because you are only playing with your voice. It is a very different thing, and I quite enjoyed it. I don’t know about the popularity of such shows. I am not on social media, but I enjoyed doing it as an actor,” Supriya explains.
The actress has fond memories of sharing screen space with her sister Ratna. “After Idhar Udhar and Mirch Masala, we worked together 34 years later in Love per Square Foot. I am sure we would love to work together, but then we are very different kinds of actors. She has her own style, and I have my own,” says Supriya who was a reluctant actress to begin with but it all changed when she worked in a play with her mother.
“Acting was not on my radar. I was studying to be a dancer. I wasn’t just happy doing practical dancing; I wanted to do a theory of dance as well. Getting my MA and PhD were my goals. But what you decide and what the lord decides for you are different. I was doing a play with my mother when it started, and I realised I loved acting. Even after working for so many years of my life, what makes my day is when I have played a new character,” Supriya confesses.
Reminiscing about her late mother, Supriya shares, “My mother taught me many things. A few things that stayed with me are that we should not have any inhibitions and not do something we are uncomfortable with because we will not be able to tell the story correctly as we have to be true to the character. She taught me about life that we are always meant for ourselves and need to be independent in the situation that the master puts us in, and that stays with me.”
Supriya is best known for playing Hansa in the immensely popular TV show Khichdi. She is happy that most of the Hansa-Praful jokes from that show are still going viral these days. “I enjoy them very much and find them funny myself. They were such lovely characters. Hansa is such a wonderful person that she always makes you happy. When you are going through a sad day, a scene of Hansa puts up your spirits. I have had so many people tell me that when they are upset, they watch Khichdi, which helps them liven up their lives,” Supriya says with a smile.
Supriya feels that the world is changing and the visual entertainment medium is also moving rather well. “The new medium of these OTT platforms gives us a lot of opportunities to tell various kinds of stories and entertain audiences. But it will happen only when you tell a good story. A story or a show is entertaining to watch if it has a diff storyline. I hated the same thing being told in 15 diff programmes and I got very scared of what happened to Indian Television. We have a lot of creativity and talent in our film industry. If we keep following what works - I think we have a great time ahead of us,” Supriya signs off.
