Dimple Kapadia says her daughters pushed her to work: Twinkle said, ‘If you need money, leave your vanity home and get back to work’

Dimple Kapadia may come across as a highly self-assured and clear-headed individual in her words, actions and onscreen portrayals. However, in reality, the actor admits her thoughts are often clouded with doubts, and lack of confidence. Surprisingly, this quality has worked in her favour throughout her career. She reasons, “The fear factor and not being confident has played such a significant role in my life that had I not jumped off (from a decided path). I don’t think I would have ever reached anywhere.”

She cites a recent incident as an example where she exhausted all possible means, including seeking assistance from her legal counsel, in an attempt to extricate herself from Saas, Bahu and Flamingo — a web show for which she is garnering praise from all quarters.

“When the show was offered to me, there was a hit and a miss. It was offered and then I was told that somebody else is doing it. But I was very keen on being a part of it despite all the fears. However, after I came on board, for at least three months before the shoot began, I was trying hard to get out of it,” she continues, “Two days before the shoot, I tried to see if I could whip up some sympathy from somewhere. I even asked to call up the lawyer and find out. Every trick I tried, I failed miserably and I’m glad I failed.”

It’s not just about this project, as the 66-year-old reveals that she had no plans to resume work altogether, but her daughters — Twinkle and Rinke Khanna — made her do it. “Right now, I don’t think I would be working at all. I would just be sitting in the house because, yes, it’s crippling. But my children have been very instrumental in kicking and telling me that I have to go out there and work,” she says, adding, “They’ve been really pushing me and it has helped. Once, I told Twinkle, ‘I don’t want to work anymore. It’s too much and my health is going down. There is tension.’ There were questions that why should I look at myself like this on screen now? Why do I need to do it?” and Twinkle just looked at me and said, ‘You need money?’ I said, ‘yes’. She said, ‘Then keep your vanity at home and go to work’. That was it, it was as blunt as that.”

At present, if Kapadia turns down a project, “the team calls up my younger daughter Rinky and then she calls me up and it goes on and on. However, I’m so glad that they pushed me to work”.

In the last one year, the actor has portrayed a wide range of characters in films such as Pathaan, to Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar to her latest OTT outing. Confessing that such diverse roles were not available to her in the early stages of her career, Kapadia feels content and happy with her current trajectory.

On whether this shift is the result of filmmakers seeing her in a different light, the actor disagrees credits it to the evolution cinema has undergone in the recent years.

“The stories have changed. We had a set pattern of having one villain, one vamp, one hero, one heroine; it was mandatory and that is how every film would be but then stories started evolving. Today we’re sitting in a time where the subject is the king and that’s why all of us are benefiting. Good roles are written. It’s a different kind of cinema today,” she points.

Talking about her latest project, Saas, Bahu and Flamingo, the veteran audiences playing a feisty mother-in-law running a drug empire. Asked if there was any challenge she faced while shooting, Kapadia quips the entire series was a significant challenge for her.

“I used to get caught up with all the stupid things in my head. I was like a bag of nerves for 40 days. And then after a month, he (director Homi Adajania) called me up and said, ‘Hey Dimple what have you done?’ And my expressions were badly battered. He battered me on the set. I think he did it purposely, so that my character Savitri, could come through. Well, I think that was his entire plan.” she ends.