Bollywood icon Sharmila Tagore shattered stereotypes in Indian cinema and still continues to make heads turn with her public appearances. The versatile actor, who hasn’t been seen in films recently, believes seniors in the film industry are still treated with respect and are not brushed aside despite the young generation taking over the mantle.
After facing the arc-lights for half a century, the cinema veteran and mother to actors Saif and Soha, is supportive of the younger generation having their way.
“I have been working for long and there comes a time when the young generation takes over. This is a country of very young people. Naturally they want [to see] young people on screen. It’s very nice, we have a young workforce, confident, intelligent and ready to face the world,” Sharmila said in an interview.
Sharmila made her acting debut at the age of 13 when she began shooting for auteur Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar (World of Apu), the last in the celebrated Apu trilogy. The film was released on May 1, 1959.
Since then, audiences have seen the winner of multiple National Awards transform from film to film. Be it Tapan Sinha’s Nirjan Saikate, Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anupama or Shakti Samanta’s Kashmir Ki Kali, Tagore’s repertoire has been a rare combination of critical and commercial success at a time when women were cast in secondary characters.
Related by birth to the famous Tagore family of Bengal that gave to the world Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, she continued her winning streak with meaty roles even after her marriage with Indian cricketing legend Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.
And at 70, she concedes working is tiring. She is conscious of the fact that seniors have to behave responsibly. “And we also have a place because in India, as you have seen, senior people are still respected and it’s not as if we are brushed aside. We also have to behave and we shouldn’t impose ourselves and act as if we are competing with the younger generation. So, there is space for all of us,” the Padma Bhushan award winner explained.
