Actress Manisha Koirala is among the most popular actresses of the 90s who rose to fame after her first film Saudagar in 1991. While she starred in many films, director Mani Ratnam’s Bombay is still believed to be one of her best performances . However, she once revealed that she was told not to sign up for the film where she played the role of a mother during her first moment in Bollywood. (Also read | Farah Khan is unrecognizable in this vintage picture with Manisha Koirala, see here)
“When I was offered Mumbai, people told me not to do it because I was playing a mother in my 20s and they thought in the next 10 years I would be doing grandmother roles. But I listened to other, wiser people who told me that I would be foolish to turn down a Mani Ratnam film. I am glad she helped me in the bargain,” PTI quoted Manisha as saying in 2018.
Directed by Mani Ratnam, Bombay starred Manisha opposite Arvind Swami. The film is based on an interfaith couple in Mumbai and their struggles before and during the Mumbai riots following the demolition of the Babri Masjid. It was released a year after Manisha’s another hit film 1942: A Love Story, starring Anil Kapoor.
Manisha was last seen in the Sanjay Dutt biopic Sanju. In the film, she played the role of Ranbir Kapoor’s mother. Apart from that, he also appeared in Netflix’s Maska. Directed by Neeraj Udhwani, it also featured Javed Jaffrey, Nikita Dutta, Prit Kamani and Shirley Setia. According to reports, the actor is likely to be a part of Kartik Aaryan’s upcoming Shehzada.
Talking about getting back to work, Manish who once battled cancer, said she wants to take things slow. “We’re in the business of ‘out of sight,’ so one tends to be on a roll all the time. I had these tendencies early in my career. Now I’m careful not to enter that space. When you are in your 20s, you have more energy and zeal. But in your 40s, you want to take it at a slower pace. Your worldview changes, you become a different person,” he told news agency PTI.
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