Neelam Kothari reveals her father hid movie offer she received for months: ‘Our daughter is never joining films’

Neelam Kothari has revealed that her family wasn’t initially comfortable with her decision to forge a career in acting. Neelam made her acting debut with the 1984 movie Jawaani opposite Karan Shah, but quit the industry in the early 2000s. The actor recently recalled that her father Shishir Kothari was so opposed to the idea that he did not inform her for several months that she had gotten a film offer. Also Read: Neelam recalls how Karan convinced her for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

Neelam recalled that his businessman father, who passed away in November last year, was adamant that his daughter is never joining films. They had several discussions about the matter before she convinced him to let her try her hands at acting.

In a conversation with Pinkvilla for the Woman Up series, Neelam said, “So I got the offer, but I think for months my dad didn’t tell me. Because in their head it was a big capital N O, our daughter is never joining films. We didn’t have a filmy background. My dad just mentioned to me over lunch that ‘you have a film offer.’ I was a very shy girl, so he told me and I said ‘you know dad the next time I go to Bombay can I try this out, weighing the option and how it works out?’ and he was ‘no no, impossible, you’re not joining films.’

Neelam revealed that Ramesh Behl, who directed her first film Jawaani, finally convinced her to do a look test when she was in Mumbai for her vacation, and she loved the experience so much that she decided to do the film. She said, “I just loved being in front of the camera. My mum was like you’re so shy, you hardly speak, how would you do this. We went back and forth for a couple of months and finally, they agreed because I said I will do this one film and I will come back to Bangkok.”

Neelam, who now handles a successful jewellery-making business, noted that though her family was not okay with her joining films, she had full support from them once she made up her mind. Neelam was last seen on the Netflix reality show Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives with Maheep Kapoor, Seema Khan, and Bhavna Pandey.