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Why is Bollywood's Meenakshi Seshadri keen to do an 'item number'?

Over two decades ago, Seshadri quit the Hindi film industry to get married and start a family in the US. She is back in Mumbai with her second innings and will be in Dubai for the Mother Teresa Awards on August 26

It was her former neighbour, the late actor Rishi Kapoor, who spotted Meenakshi Seshadri in the US and posted a photo of her on Twitter that drew attention to her a few years ago. So, when she came back to India to get back to her industry she realised how important it was to have a digital footprint in the entertainment industry and also have a following. Her son helped her out with his ‘constructive criticism,’ though her daughter is not keen on social media. Her channel is filled with reels of her dancing.

At the peak of her career, Meenakshi quit the industry and married Harish Mysore, an investment banker. Life in the US was challenging. “Initially I was very insecure about completely quitting the film industry. Harish and I even considered finding avenues for him in India through American companies. To his absolute credit he tried his best, but his future lay in the US and not India. He did his higher education there and was well entrenched into investment banking.”

Also she was ready to put down her roots and start a family. “The US forced me out of my comfort zone to become self-sufficient. Since she was a simple middle-class girl despite being a famous movie star, she could adjust. “At home too, back in Mumbai, I wasn’t surrounded by staff. We had two part-timers and the rest of the time [it] was just mom and me.”

"Dallas has huge expanses of land and it was a joy to drive there,” she adds. She recalls finding it tough to understand the Texan accent and would ask people to repeat sentences over and over again!

Meenakshi, who is trained in four classical dance forms — Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, Odissi and Kathak — soon started teaching dance there at the behest of friends. “I started learning music and dance by the age of two and each classical form takes six years [to learn], and I perfected all before my foray into Bollywood at 20,” she says.

Which is why she is keen to do an item song. “I would like to let my soul free and bring to my dance what I [have] learnt from the last 28 years of my life. I [want to make a] come back with a fresher perspective.”

As for body shaming and age shaming, Meenakshi is vehement in her response. “Recently I was in Dubai and posted a Reel. While most of the comments were positive, a small percentage of people told me to ‘behave my age', 'wear a saree and hair bun'. It is strange that when you have crossed the threshold of 30-40 years of age, a lot of people try to straitjacket you behind a veneer of their expectations.“

"In fact," she adds, "a dancer or an actor should not have an image and flow into what her character demands.”

But Meenakshi takes it in her stride. “ I am 60-plus and I don’t want my intelligence to be insulted or want to play safe any more to satisfy the requirements of the general public. Sometimes filmmakers are confused about what to offer me. I read some three scripts that didn’t make sense to me — one was about this weird person no one understands, who is there in 10 percent of the film’s story. Is this what I am attracting.” (Laughs)

As for relocating to India now, did she find the transition to her house in Pune easy? “I did have some pangs on homecoming and complained a lot about the infrastructure, congestion and pollution but I got acclimatised soon.”

Meenakshi is waiting for proper representation in the PR industry. Meanwhile she is catching up with friends from the industry. “ A friend of mine wanted to honour the leading pair from Hero at his farmhouse and I met Jackie Shroff after so many years. He hasn’t changed at all. He gave me a plant he gifts his friends. I watched how he promoted the event on social media with his team. She plans to meet more of her colleagues soon.

Meenakshi has always admired the South Indian industry since it holds centre stage to a lot of content we see in India today. “They were always ahead of Mumbai in terms of efficiency, planning and production. The Telugu industry has been a pioneer and very sharp in business. The star value that you can see there can hardly be matched by Bollywood.”

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