Neena Gupta is an Indian film and television actress.
The very popular actress of both the Indian Film and Television
industry is known all across the nation for going against the tide in
both her real and reel life. She has also made her mark as a producer
and director and has quite a few good scripts in her kitty but cannot
roll them out immediately, as the financers are not being able to take
that risk.
She
appeared in Indian movies such as "Utsav" (1984) and "Khalnayak"
(1993). On television she has acted in series such as "Bharat Ek Khoj"
and "Saat Phere". She also made appearances in international films such
as "Gandhi" (1982) where she played the niece of the title character
and the Merchant-Ivory films "The Deceivers" (1988) and "Cotton Mary"
(1999).
She catapulted to fame with the much popular soap Saans, which used to
be aired on the Star Plus Channel. In this serial, which has been
written by her, she highlighted the lives of 35+ educated women , whom
she refers to as the 'dead generation'. She also highlights the lives
of those women who are the prime targets for husbands who work in
challenging environments and meet attractive, available younger women
who are prepared for adventurous extra-marital relationships or even
bigamous marriage. She also earned rave reviews for featuring in films
like"Nazar" and "Amavas" and also wants to associate herself with
realistic cinema with which the audience can identify themselves.
The personal life of Neena Gupta however has been through many
adversities. She had a brief relation with the former West Indian
cricketer Vivian Richards. With him she also had a daughter who was
named Masaba. She claims that without her daughter she would be a
drifter. She wants to get married to a man of her liking as she does
not want her child to go ashtray without any protective umbrella over
her head. Despite all the odds of her life she has went ahead with her
work and proved her mettle as a multi-faceted persona. She believes in
content driven cinema and claims that the channels nowadays are afraid
to show something based on reality.
At
present she is acting in the very popular daily "Saat Phere-Saloni Ka
Safar". In this soap he plays the character called Manno Bhabhi who is
also the mother of Abhi a guy of mid twenty-five. She has recently
worked in a Bengali film titled "Devi" by Abhijit Dasgupta but says
that the experience of working in a Bengali film is indeed very taxing.
Although she has studied in a Bengali school in Delhi, she was
not using the language on a regular basis and hence had to put in some
extra hard work as her grammar often goes wrong. But it is indeed one
of the best roles of her life. Her powerhouse performances, bold spirit
and dauntless courage to stand against all odds has made her an icon of
the young generations to look upto.