Isha Koppikar Shared How She Was Duped Into Doing Ishq Samundar On The Promise She Would Get A Bigger Role Which Never Happened
Having been a 90s kid who was raised on a healthy diet of Bollywood movies, I used to be smitten with the industry and it’s glamorous lifestyle. From fantasising about the kind of roles actors donned on-screen to wanting to become like them when I grew up, it is safe to say that like every other Indian, I too hoped for a future in Bollywood. Reality struck at about 15 when I wanted everything else and the industry didn’t seem so glamorous anymore. Especially after listening to the revelations by actress Isha Kopikar recently made about the dubious nature of the industry.
In a candid interview, Isha Koppikar who had once been the name on every 90s kid’s lips because of her several hit songs like Khallas and Ishq Samundar, opened up about the factors that ultimately led her to doing a series of item numbers, all the while taking her away from real roles. Isha started by talking about working with Ram Gopal Verma and doing the Khallas song that shot her to fame. She said, “I never expected it. I had done a few films down South and I played the girl next door. So I never thought I could look this hot. When RGV asked me to do the song, he asked me to keep quiet. Once it was done, when I saw it, I was shocked and was blown.”
Also Read : Isha Koppikar Also Faced The Casting Couch. It Looks Like Any Actress Who Worked In Bollywood In 2000s Faced This!
However, that surprise was rather short-lived, for what followed was the industry and its nefarious ways of typecasting Isha and limiting her to item numbers. One instance was while she was working with filmmaker Sanjay Gupta and was tricked into doing an item number for them after being promised a greater role in the film. She said, “I was offered several dance numbers which I had to say no to. Khallas kind of typecasted me where people wanted to take me only for songs. I did Ishq Samundar also at the same time. It was actually supposed to be a role in the film but it was not. I don’t really know what happened.” And while she may not know what happened, we clearly do. He, along with several others like him in the industry, were classic a-holes to her and that is that.
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And it hasn’t just been Isha Koppikar who has faced the brunt of being slotted into a certain role by the industry, or duped into doing work she otherwise might not have agreed to. There are several other actresses who too have always found themselves at the mercy of either filmmakers or of other actors. What is even more saddening is that nothing really has changed since then, for even now we see women being reserved only for the song and dance numbers in a movie. Sometimes, if the director is in a particularly gracious mood, he’d give her more of a role than that of a background prop.
However, with the wave of new-age cinema that is hitting us, along with young filmmakers who seem to see beyond such gender biases, there might be some hope left. Especially as the actresses in Bollywood continue to outshine others. And as for Bollywood? Shame on you for dangling carrots of a full role to get her to do something like this.
