on Dec 06, 2020)From sex symbol to samaj karam, the Rangeela star has always believed she would one day work for the people.Actor Urmila Matondkar is just back in her Bandra apartment. After being followed by reporters and photographers all day, she has finally managed to escape them by leaving Matoshree, the residence of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray where, just minutes before, she was inducted into the Shiv Sena. Months of speculation about what the actor would do, ever since she contested in the general elections on a Congress ticket and lost, ended with her entry into the Sena.“When I received a call from Uddhavji, emphasising that we need to elevate the social and cultural standards of the Maharashtra Vidhan Parishad, it touched a chord with me,” Matondkar tells Mirror. “He has been doing tremendous work in dealing with so many difficult issues in the state. I didn’t need even need to give it a second thought to unequivocally say ‘yes’.” The actor, who has frequently been disparaged by Bollywood as a ‘vernie’ because of her Marathi accent, says she had often contemplated visiting Sena supremo Bal Thackeray at Matoshree, but never got around to it.It’s been 14 months since the last general elections, and since Matondkar quit the Congress. “If I was an opportunist, I would have defected within 14 hours,” she says. “I didn’t just lick my wounds on losing. I did some introspection, and told myself that I would continue, even as a social activist.” So why did she leave the party? Matondkar is guarded. “Its working style didn’t suit me. So with due respect to Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, I withdrew. There was no acrimony; nor did I give out interviews criticising the party.”Matondkar, now 46, believes she has matured a lot. “I had no illusions about being useful without an infrastructure,” she says. “It’s self-defeating to sit in an airconditioned room and tweet away constantly. I intend to work towards social upliftment in even the remotest corners of Maharashtra, with my Kashmiri Muslim husband [Mohsin Akhtar Mir] standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me. I am with a Hindu party in which inclusiveness and tolerance are vital components.”
Urmila Matondkar: I joined Shiv Sena because I wanted to work for the people
I have known Urmila for two-and-ahalf decades, and she’s always struck me as an actor who was dissatisfied with the roles offered to her. That she would some day venture into a profession that (at least in principle) promotes collective welfare, was a given. She has always respected her staff and never raised her voice when a film’s shoot has gone haywire. If a vanity van hasn’t been provided at a far-flung location, she’s taken it in her stride, and skipped meals and water to complete an arduous schedule.The actor, who has faced the camera since she was five — one of her most memorable appearances was as a child in Masoom (1983) — has slaved around the clock to settle her now-ageing parents. That done, she withdrew prematurely from films and became almost reclusive. Then, she sprang a surprise four years ago, with her marriage to businessmancum-model Mir, whom she has rarely spoken about.“That’s not true,” she retorts. “I have close friends in Bollywood but Mohsin and I hardly ever attend those phot-op parties. I’ve always been more of a family person. My parents Shrikant Matondkar and Sunita Desai always encouraged me to work for the underprivileged.”Switching off her incessantly-buzzing phone, Matondkar says: “I was weaned on the progressive films of Balraj Sahni, Nilu Phule, Shreeram Lagoo, Raj Kapoor and V Shantaram. There was a time when Nargis and Sunil Dutt would entertain the jawans in war time. Smita Patil was a member of the Seva Dal, but few know that I was a part of this grassroots organisation as well. When Annasaheb Hazare went on hunger strike in New Delhi in 2011, I was there to lend whatever little support I could.”Despite acting in nearly a hundred films in various languages, Matondkar says she has stayed away from the machinations of the film industry. But she has no qualms talking about something that might be an uncomfortable past for a politician: Her reputation as a sex symbol. “The image of a sex symbol stuck like glue, which was fine by me,” she says with a smile. “Some heroines have to do 20 films to get there, but I got it at one go with Rangeela. Still, there was this gnawing feeling that I should give at least an iota of myself to samaj karam.”Why did these feelings never come to the fore during her film career? She says, somewhat hastily, that heroines of that time were required to be glamorous, and nothing else. “Mercifully, the times have changed. In Bollywood, it didn’t matter that as a teen, I had read Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gorky, Steinbeck and DH Lawrence. Or that I had studied at Ruparel College, scored 87 per cent in political philosophy, and firmly believed in Jeremy Bentham’s tenet of the greatest good for the greatest number.”Has she said goodbye to acting? Matondkar says yes, unless an exceptional offer comes her way. “Frankly, the film industry has given me nothing,” she says. “Yet the way it has been vilified lately by the media as debauched and drug-addled, is preposterous. The media used to stalk celebrities once, but now they’re terrorising them as well.”Does she see herself as an MP in the future? Matondkar rules out such ambitions, saying she could have requested an MLC position for herself but preferred to join the Sena instead. Then, with a whoop of self-deprecating laughter, she surmises: “In the movies, I was a people made star. Now, I hope to become a people-made leader, inshallah.”
