2024-04-09 19:50:16
Actress Neetu Chandra is currently in the news for the musical play ‘Umrao Jaan Ada’. Neetu Chandra may be less visible in Bollywood, but she has two Hollywood films coming up. Neetu Chandra spoke with ‘Navbharat Times’ about her play, career and challenges.
highlights
- Actress Neetu Chandra is currently in the news for the musical play ‘Umrao Jaan Ada’.
- Neetu Chandra may be less visible in Bollywood, but she has two Hollywood films coming up.
- Neetu Chandra talks about her play, career and challenges with ‘Navbharat Times’
Actress Neetu Chandra, who has done films like ‘Traffic Signal’ and ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’ in Bollywood, made her Hollywood debut a few years ago with the film ‘Never Back Down: Revolt’. Now she is going to hoist the flag of Indian culture in America with her West End musical play ‘Umrao Jaan Ada’. We had a special conversation with Neetu, who is going to perform this play in nine cities of North America, on her journey:You have done a lot of work on the big screen. For ten years now you have been showing your talent on stage in the play ‘Umrao Jaan Ada’. How much does this theater experience matter?
First of all, I would like to tell that the ‘Umrao Natak’ which I was doing since 2012-13 is completely different from this ‘Umrao Jaan Ada: The Westend Musical’. Both of course are on Umrao Jaan, but the first one was with Rekha Bhardwaj, which we used to do at Prithvi Theatre. The cast, story, music, everything was different. The ‘Umrao Jaan’ that I am doing now has been prepared on a very grand scale. Music is by Salim Suleman. This is a musical, in which Rekha ji’s songs like Dil Cheez Kya Hai.., In Aankhon Ki Masti.. have been recreated. There are wonderful Kathak performances. I have been practicing Kathak for seven-eight months. I had done Kathak from Lucknow Gharana in my childhood, now for the last 10 months I have been doing riyaaz by tying 200 Ghunghrus daily. We are going to do its shows all over North America. There will be shows in nine places like New Jersey, Orlando, Atlanta, Houston, Washington DC, so it is completely different and I am very excited about it. Theater means a lot to me. There is no action cut, you have to be alert all the time. You get immediate response and love from people, so you feel more alive.
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Actress Neetu Chandra: Neetu Chandra expressed her desire to make films in regional languages, will give opportunity to local artists
You are seen in everything from South films to Hollywood films, but why are you away from Hindi films?
No no, it is not at all like that. One of my films is releasing in August, with Randeep Hooda and Paresh Rawal ji. Actually, the two-three films I did during Covid took time to get released. Then I went to Hollywood. Last year my Hollywood film ‘Never Back Down: Revolt’ was released on OTT. You may see less quantity in my work, but there is a lot of quality. Now I don’t want to be seen everywhere, but my work is not up to the mark. I don’t want to be seen just to be seen. I want my audience, my fans to look at me with pride that if Neetu does anything then she will do it well, she will do something solid and solid thing does not come to me on a platter. I am not from a film background. I have created this world by connecting straws and straws and now there are no obstacles. Next month a Tamil film is coming with Anurag Kashyap – One to One. There are two more Hollywood films. Now the world has become very small, where you have to do a film, buy a ticket, go and do the film. I am also reading the scripts of two Hindi films, Hindi is my language so I will do that first.
Insta/nituchandrasrivastava
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Neetu, you came to Bollywood from Bihar. Has been standing here for almost twenty years. How challenging has it been for you to work in this industry on your own terms?
It has been very difficult. That’s why it took me so many years to reach here. I didn’t have any management team. It is said that it takes an army to make a star, I had no army. When I was doing well, there were a lot of people around me. Then there came a period when I was not doing anything, it was very difficult when no one was with me. When a person is no more, people worry more about him. Now people tell me why don’t you do this, why don’t you do that, but I was here, why didn’t you ask? Then no one said that Neetu has been a fourth dan black belt in Taekwondo for 18 years, she should be the biggest action star, should do the biggest action films or if I was a trained Kathak dancer then I should be like Sanjay Leela Bhansali or Ashutosh Gowarikar. Got work in films. I would also like to work with these amazing directors and whenever I get a chance, I will give it my all. I never had a team that could present my talent but Hollywood called me. I myself have acted in my Hollywood film.
Nitu Chandra: Businessman wanted to make Neetu Chandra his wife by giving 25 lakhs every month, shocking revelation of the actress
‘Rajgir will be the Disneyland of the country in the coming days’, actress Neetu Chandra reached Nalanda, said- this is a unique place for film shooting.
You produced the first National Award winning Maithili film like Mithila Makhan. When he did not get a place on OTT, he also started his own OTT platform. What new are you doing towards the upliftment of Bhojpuri-Maithili films?
My brother Nitin Chandra and I started our production house 12 years ago. Our effort was to create jobs and bring business in Bihar, but the image of Bhojpuri has been tarnished so much that we are unable to even breathe after seeing its image. Now people have even started glamorizing that superficial image that she is like that, which is not true. There are very educated people from this state. We were trying to save that culture. We work in Bhojpuri, Maithili, Magahi. We brought Maithili’s first film, which received the National Award. Today, be it South Indian or Konkani, Gujarati, regional films are doing very well, but when it comes to Bhojpuri films, all the top OTT platforms reject them saying that its image is such that they do not want to take it. This is discrimination, that is why we came up with our own OTT platform, but to make it subscriber based, we will have to keep creating and posting content continuously, for which budget is required. Due to all these reasons, we have lagged behind in bringing forward films in our language but we are trying. Last year our Bhojpuri film Jackson Height came out, which got very good ratings. At the same time, Kariyathi is ready. Four-five more films are in the pipeline.
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