Actor Manish Koirala, who is making her acting comeback with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi: The Diamond Market, recently opened up about one of her biggest regrets in her career. Manisha shared that she was offered Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai with Madhuri Dixit but she got “scared” and rejected the offer.
“One of the regrets that I have in my career is I didn’t do Yash (Chopra) Ji’s film and I was pitted against Madhuri ji and I got scared and I was thinking, ‘oh my god will I be (able to do it)?’ So I kind of backed out of that project. Every actress of my time, when Yash ji was alive, wanted to work in Yash ji’s film because he portrayed women so beautifully. And I went to Yash ji’s office and I said, ‘sir, it is my dream to be your heroine, so, you are putting me against Madhuri ji and I am somehow not (sure).’ somehow a better judgement of mine, I kind of, I think I missed out,” Manisha told India Today in an interview. The part was ultimately played by Karisma Kapoor.
She then candidly opened up on how she decided to do Lajja (2001) which, along with Manisha, also starred Madhuri Dixit and Rekha. Revealing how she decided to not pay heed to her “silly insecurities”, she said, “Years later, when Rajkumar Santoshi ji offered Lajja to me, I took it because I had already done the mistake (of rejecting a film with Madhuri) before. That Lajja story was so mind-blowing. It was all women centric, it was all women’s issues from different strata of the society so I was bowled over the subject and we did that.”
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“I had also done one mistake of letting go of one major project which could have been a landmark project also in my career. I realised that I didn’t want to do that mistake again out of my silly insecurities. And I am so glad I did it, I am so proud of Lajja. Madhuri ji is such a good person, she is such a good artiste, there was no need for me to be insecure, I think. It’s just that when you have a strong actor in front of you, you only perform better. They encourage you to perform better. All that comes with age and experience, and all that. I loved working with Madhuri ji in that. I loved working with Rekha ji. It was such a beautiful experience working with them in Lajja,” she concluded.
Heeramandi marks Manisha and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s second collaboration after 1996’s Khamoshi: The Musical, which also starred Salman Khan.
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