It has been more than five years since Urmila Matondkar appeared in a film, leading to persistent chatter about her exit from Bollywood. The actor, however, remains unfazed by the perception. Urmila has set the record straight, revealing that she never quit acting and was simply waiting for parts that could do justice to her.
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Urmila reveals that exciting opportunities are now making their way to her. She is also working on making debut on OTT platform, exclaiming, “It’s just about time to get back onto the sets and get rocking again”.
On not acting for long
After Blackmail, Urmila was seen as a judge on DID Super Moms Season 3 in 2022, though it wasn’t a full-fledged acting assignment.
Ask her about people who have a perception that she is not interested in working and has quit acting, Urmila clarifies, “When it comes to my work, I have always been selective. I can’t blame anybody if they thought that maybe I’m not doing movies or something. But that never was the case. I’m definitely at this moment all ready to get back onto the silver screen.”
On her upcoming projects
In 1991, Urmila made her debut in a leading role with Narasimha, and went on to feature in projects such as Rangeela, Judaai, Satya, Kaun, Bhoot and Pinjar. During the conversation, Urmila reveals she is working on an OTT project through which she is exploring something entirely new.
“I am looking for roles which I have not done before, especially on OTT. Because there is just so much that is happening on OTT, which has opened a different gamut of genres, characters and emotions, which were unexplored earlier,” she says.
The 51-year-old continues, “I have already finished one show, and hopefully that should come sometime next year. I want something that is challenging enough as an actor to actually get me up and go out there. I will definitely try and explore something new. It’s just about time to get back onto the film sets and get rocking again.”
Looking back at her career, Urmila says, “The greatest thing I managed to do over my career is that I never got stuck in any mould. I broke each and every mould which I created to the best of my abilities… There were other contemporaries of mine who were doing similar kinds of roles, wearing similar kinds of clothes. I quickly moved on.”
“After Rangeela, I moved towards Judaai… I tried to use my name and my star status to be part of movies which were not necessarily big movies but were good…They gave me opportunities to create different versions of myself on celluloid. That has been the biggest asset of my career. When others got fed up with doing the same roles after 10 years, I had already explored so many different kinds of varieties, which, sadly, critics then refused to see, but that’s fine. My audiences saw it, they loved it, and that is the only thing that mattered above everything else,” she notes.
On pay parity
Urmila also pointed out that pay structures in the industry have improved significantly compared to the 1990s. That said, she added that she has little to complain about from her own experience, recalling instances when she was paid more than her male counterparts.
“I have no problems with the kind of money I was paid. I was definitely one of the highly paid stars back then, also. There were also movies in which I was paid more than my male counterparts. I will humbly accept the fact. So, I don’t think the topic of pay disparity should be looked at from one perspective,” Urmila mentions.
She continues, “Things have changed for the better. Over the years, the payrolls have been much better, but then so have movie budgets. So, it would be a little immature to give an answer from only one perspective. Everything has changed tremendously over the last 3 decades, and therefore, the payrolls and everything else also have changed accordingly.”
