 Ladies and gentlemen, I must ask you to offer your loudest cheer as we welcome Sushmita Mukherjee. Well, on behalf of Exchange for Media, I'd like to thank you for taking our time for Ms. Kedule and gracing the occasion with your presence. Of course, so we have someone who needs no introduction at all. We all know her. We have seen her on screen close to four decades of journey, 100 plus national international films, 50 plus, I mean, marquee TV shows. Quickly, Sushmita, my first question is when you, we just saw that clip also and we all, many of us recall, you know, that character that you played from that kitty to the author. How do you sum up that journey? Hello everyone. And it's a huge privilege and honour for me to be here at this summit because I was hearing these ladies speak and I'm in complete awe for someone who has never held a job in her life. I speak dialogues for a living and it was fantastic. It is, I mean, it is so, I am speechless, actually, you know, when you talk the different things that people spoke and it resonated with me. I'll just come to your question in a minute because I really am so in awe of what the women leaders have done and are doing and it resonated very strongly with me, especially when they talked about one lady talked about pivoting. You know, I mean, that's the word I was using that, you know, if it doesn't work, don't be discouraged because it happened to me because I tried to get it to the social area for a while and I was completely thrown off. It just didn't make sense to me because everybody would come to just look at me and take pictures. I'm talking some time ago. So I failed there and for the longest time I felt like a failure, you know, so and then she talked about how you can pivot. The other lady was talking about, I think, something like a cognitive dissonance when you know, you're forced to do something when you have to comply which you don't believe in. I think she spoke about that and that too made a lot of sense to me. So coming to your question about how I, I mean, you know, I've always been scribbler. I've always been writing, never held a job. So as a freelancer, just to always write and was a ghost writer because my work was going on in films and I was very scared that if I became a full-time writer, my acting shop would be closed because in my industry people don't, you know, they don't like to think of you anything but an actor. But I never was a typical actor having trained at the National School of Drama. So I always wanted to kind of break this ceiling and I started my career in 81, which is now what, 42 years. So it was, the times were different. I've actually, I've been writing the way, the, you know, the wave of four decades, things have changed from, you know, the time it was black and white and then we started, you know, with, with, with Durdarshan and then the satellite in the 90s and now to this, you know, from the, from the multiplex and now OTT and all it's been. So as we move culturally, as we move in a society, we move in our thinking. And I've always been very not happy to be, you know, stereotyped into a kind of character or just a kitty or something. I've always wanted to do different things. And obviously, it's not in your hands because you're not a producer or a director. So what do you do? How do you indulge yourself or indulge in what you want to create? So you're right. So that's how I became a writer. And my fourth book is to be released. And it's, I'm in awe of that too. But it's something very dear to me. And there is no, there is no reason I don't have any, you know, I don't have any intent that this should work or this should not work. Like one of the ladies said, have fun. So it's been a long journey for me too. I'm running 65 myself. And at this age and stage of my life, I just have, I, I just love my life. I love my work. I learned like today was, I'm so grateful to you for calling me, but I bought Seekha, and yeah, that's it. If I answered your question. Thank you. Karan has a question. So, you know, you started in NSD in the early 1980s, then you set up your Nattak company, and then you were also helping your husband there after in setting up his venture. So tell me about the experience from NSD and, you know, the Nattak, how you see transformation happening in these last two to three decades? Oh, you know, it's been very tough because when I came, I'm a Delhi girl. Okay. So I was raised in Delhi. I studied here. And then when I went to Mumbai, it was very tough because we didn't have homes. We didn't have homes. And we suddenly got very famous after Karamchand. So it was a very strange feeling because we were very famous. We didn't have cars. We didn't have homes, but we had to buy vegetables. So you have to have vegetables and they would look at you. Don't tell me you were giving it for free? Yes, they gave it for free. My mother's house is outside the house of Kitti's mother. So that kind of fame is not what it is today because that was very organic. Today we have media to help create an actor or create a star. In those days, there was nothing people, the journalists would wait for you. And we were all so young at the game. So it was always learning by process. It wasn't, obviously it wasn't digital either. So it was a very different journey. And you just have to go. And I went through, as in when I got it, it wasn't like, you know, I could afford choices. There were no choices. So Prithvi Theatre made 8 rupees, we used to get a thali, so many people, we used to serve there because it was a very big ad filmmaker, Pralad Kakkar. So he ran a cafe there. So we used to serve and we used to get a meal. So we used to eat that. So we struggled through. It wasn't a struggle because when you enjoy what you do, it isn't a struggle. It was great. We helped each other. We worked together. And so there we are. Of course, I think that was the golden era, the way, you know, people worship those characters because you had nothing else, you know, that time. And today is a saturated overdose of media. But I want to come to your book here. One, what I was reading a briefly kind of skim through it. And I could sense that it is a bold topic, a taboo subject that you dare to touch. One, what was the idea behind writing this, you know, and putting this, these capture these stories so vividly? What was the inspiration behind it? What all went into writing this book? Actually, this is not really a book. It is a, it's my personal travelogue over four decades, actually. So even when I was in the vanity van or I was raising children, my children are grown up now. I would always be writing. So even when I was nursing the children, I would be writing and we're diary. And then it's actually the COVID that this book has come out. So it's been 40 years. And Banj is one of the stories. And my publisher wanted to call it Banj, incomplete lives of complete women. Because as the panelists were saying that most of us, however, talented, beautiful, successful, with great family life, we have always somewhere feel incomplete. Because I think at the end of the day, there is a patriarchal imprint in us genetically that we always look for the other, the male gaze as you call it, for them to make you feel okay about yourself. So somewhere or the other, this tagline became a little something that, you know, incomplete lives of complete women, you know, however complete you are somewhere, there's a nagging sense that, you know, I wish I'd done that. Well, I'm not so good as she is or he is. So it's just a compilation of what I was thinking over all these years. And there are a number of chapters in this book. Any particular chapter that you specifically want to touch upon and share a bit of anecdote around that? You know what? Because I think nobody has seen the book or read it, it won't make for sense for me talking about it. Because it's just some, these are just stories. And stories which came out for me organically, stories that I just felt and the publisher felt that it could resonate because stories 40 years earlier, 30 years pager, when we had pagers, would you have pagers? I think it's a very young audience. I don't think you all know, you all know pagers? So there's some stories of pagers and stuff. So it's like you as technology moved as culture moved as political, you know, climate move everything moved. So stories move around that because what you see outside is reflected in word and it's a two way mirror. It's almost like a holograph, you know, so that's how it's happened. So you know, you have done a number of roles from television to movies to international movies. And you see the there's a shift in the audience, the way they see movies now and the experience which was in those years and now. What difference you see in terms of the audience perception or liking towards movies now in the sense that a lot of audience tastes have changed. And they should because change is the only constant. So they should as everything changes from the time when I was a young girl living in Delhi to now I'm coming back after, you know, six decades, things have changed. So taste change, culture changes, education changes, everything changes. So obviously the audience view and taste will also change. So from that time now with the OTT, everything is like, because of the WWW worldwide web, we're all in, we're all part of this huge planetary grid, I would say, we're all under a grid, we're all are connected whichever way. I mean, I am very technically, I mean, I'm very challenged. I'm just barely know how to open a laptop. I have issues with my eyes also. So I can't do a lot, I still write. But I know the power that digital world has. And in my, in my profession, I can get away with it because I'm not a CEO or I'm not into, you know, I'm not, I'm just an actor, you know, who has to speak line. So as long as they can read those. But I know that because of this explosion of information, everything has changed. And today's, and you people have so much information at your fingertip. So it's like another lady was saying, panelist that, you know, it's a two way thing. You teach us what we don't know. And you have the humility and the courage to take our wisdom. Don't think just because you're smart with your fingers, you're smarter than this generation, because we then become the generation of grandmothers. And we have many, many things to share with you if you have the humility to listen. And we on our part have to listen to you, because you are the next beton that we are passing on. So we have to listen to you. And that's how I think when a mother teaches her girl something like this, she passes on those things to her, which enables her to fight to survive a increasingly tough world. Okay, there's a very controversial topic nowadays. There's a new trend happening in volleyball, the boycott trend. If you want to add anything to it, or you want to comment. Is it okay? I also want to add to that question. So largely digital play is a huge role in this, especially some of the platforms. When you look at it, as an artist, how fair, unfair does it appear to you? Boycott trend. Oh, the boycott. See, I'm not really equipped to answer this question because I'm not a real Bollywood person. I've acted in 100 films, but I'm not neither an A-lister, neither am I doing all the movies that I've been doing. I've just been, as you might have seen, I was doing that dance. I was hiding in chain. You know, that was like what, 80s. So it's, I don't know. And frankly, I came across something called trans surfing. I don't know if anybody's familiar with trans surfing. Anyway, it's a new concept. My son, my 28 year old son, he shared it with me. So it seems like, you know, information and then there is another information which goes the other way. So this constant polarization of information, somebody's left, somebody's right, somebody's left of left, somebody's right of right. And you always have to take a stand. And we all did because somewhere we are human, you're part of a society, you take a stand. You know, I like him. I don't like her. But there is an option. There is an option of ignoring. As a young girl, my boy used to tell me a lot. And in our Bengali home, it was to call Ig, Ig. So yeah, Ig, Ig. And with a little, I, so even with my children were young, I used to, you know, something would happen. I would say Ig. So when trans surfing happened, you can Google it. Because that's what I did. I understood the power of being able to say, no, I have a choice. I choose to ignore it. So if everyone is saying boycott or not boycott, I don't have to take a stand. I am, well, a kind of author or actor. My job is limited to that extent. And I don't want to get into that. I know there is a big thing. And I'm not being politically correct, right? I'm just feel that I choose to ignore that. Before I go on stage, you know, I had six requests that they also want to ask questions. So I have that in mind as well. But before that quickly, you know, in your course of journey in the entertainment world, what are some of the memories that you really hold on to, if you could share, you know, I know it's not easy. But yes, but just like what, you know, why don't we do it when you well, let's ask particular questions and I will, you know, I'll be able to streamline it. Otherwise it will be very. Yes, Shravanthi. And then the gentleman. What are the kind of roles or characters that attracted you the most over your period of performing both on television and in films? Quirky. Yeah, quirky. Because I've always, I just didn't want to be one type. And you know, a heroine has a shelf life. You know, they're just heroines. So in our times, there was a van. And I would, in King Uncle, many of you may have seen it or you were, you know, I played a horrible vamp. I'm a terrible woman. I torch a little children. So she's completely different from this very cute affable siliquity. So they completely polar opposites. And that's what attracted me. Because I think, you know, I've always wanted to do something different and break out of a mold when I was I was always struggling for people to define me. And my parents lost the case because they couldn't. And I just chose not to be in the IAS because in my time, that was the thing to do, you know, and because I was a good student. So they thought, and then to get into Bombay and then struggle and then, you know, do all these kinds of things. But that quirk, my desire, my, I, I knew instantly with great clarity that this was my journey from a very young age. So I was, I just followed my path. I just followed my instinct. I didn't waver for the longest time. I've been a running actor and a running actor means I didn't do anything else for a living. I mean, writing and all has just been very recent. My first book, me and Juhi baby was published in 2018. That's four years ago. But I did write two plays which have not been published because I was very shy. But we performed it with three. They did very well also. So to answer your question, I've always looked for, I mean, I can't see, you know, crash the glass ceiling or something as grand as that. But I've always tried to stretch myself and not become, you know, a smaller version of myself. I just wanted to always do something quirky. Thank you so much, mom. You know, you've regaled the audience and here, here, you regaled the audience as a running actor. You mentioned that. But for a lot of people on the audience, the impact of Karamcha and then US Kitty was so amazing that even, you know, decades later when it's available and OTT and platforms, the viewer connect with you is fantastic, right? So I wanted to ask you what now when you reflect back on your journey as an actor, what do you think was the ingredient that made that show so amazing and give you this forever lifetime identity? And as a performance, if you look at your career of the last few decades, what's a performance that you gave for whatever reason that's really close to your heart? Because for us, it's Kitty, you know, it's number 12345 and then comes 678, whatever, right? But for you, that one performance that you hold very close to your heart. And if you could just share why? So initially, it's more about why Kitty is so, you know, why was it right? Was it the team? Was it just the energy of that initial team coming together? Because the longevity of the content that you were able to make, be it with Karamchan, that's Pankaj beat you in your performance, beat the director, something must have been amazing that that content has such longevity. You know, it's, it's funny you say this because it just was by accident. So Pankaj Kapoor and I, we were, we were acting in a play and Pankaj had been cast. He was three, four years senior to me at the NST and he's also been my teacher, but we were acting in a play and he was cast by Pankaj Parashar. And I've told this story to death, but I'm going to tell it to you yet once more. So one day he came to the rehearsal place and he had very strange hair, you know, Pankaj Parashar, the director. And I said, why do you have hair which looks like a cauliflower? He was very offended. He told Pankaj Kapoor, I was going to take it, but she called my hair cauliflower. Young egos. So Pankaj said, look, please go and say sorry to him. I said, why should I say sorry to him? He said, why did you say that? Why did you say cauliflower? So I one day went and told him, I said, he's sorry if I, if I said, I'm sorry if your hair I like cauliflower. I was still saying cauliflower, but I didn't say that. And I got the job. Okay. It was as simple as that. Having said that, it was a magical time because subsequently with all, when, when Ekta Kapoor came with her angel investment and venture capital words that, you know, even I've been a producer, I had no clue about. And she came into the line and she cooperatized it everything. And she said, time and time, all those things which we had no clue about. We were just interested in our scripts and performance. So at that time, what happened? Then there was only 39 episodes over three years. Now we think that this, the, the benchmark is 5000 episodes. So can you imagine the times when it was only 39 episodes, which created an impact versus something which is 5000 episodes. So can you see what has happened to the culture, the society, the time? And people would just enjoy, and it was like a delicate dessert. You know, everybody just ate a little bit of it and paid bhar jata tha, now there is a, there is a buffet, which is, if this is so much food, it's like a Roman feast of content, the images of a content. It na khaana hai ki log. And now people are saying, okay, there is a plethora of things to choose from. So I think the success was partly due to the times, due to the magic of the, the energies that we all shared. We were friends, despite the cauliflower incident, we were friends. And yeah, that's all I can say. I don't know. And the one performance that's close, I actually asked a performance that's close to your heart, which for whatever reasons you can share with us, that's something that really appeals to you, something that you've done. So I've done something called kaptak pukaru. I don't know if any of you have seen that. Anybody seen kaptak pukaru? Okay. So this was Ranghe Raghav, he's a very famous novelist, many, many awarded novelists. Unki ek story thi kaptak pukaru. It was about the garya lohaars of lohaar. They were nuts, nut. They travel with their, they are homeless. So they carry, they travel in their wagons. So it was a story of Pankaj Kapoor, me and Pallavi Joshi, the three of us. And this woman is madly in love with her husband, Pankaj Kapoor, but she develops a sexually trans STD, you know, disease. And then she finds this young Pallavi Joshi and marries a husband to her because she loves her husband so much. It was of course very layered. So that was a character. And I was also the producer of that show. So pere baal aise hote thi, you know, like little things like how gypsies are. And for three, four, five days, it wouldn't be wash table be like this. And I would be doing my lines and saying sabko chahi mili hai ke nahi. We're talking about 87. So like many, many years ago. So that that was a performance very close to my heart of Pyaari of kaptak pukaru. Karan panel question. Yes. One last question. You have achieved so much. What's next from here? Oh, what, what am I doing next? Next, I am going to be coming soon in in a Lakshman Uttakar film where I play Sara Ali Khan's mother. So a see the character kya hai Sara Ali Khan's mother. And then, because mostly films, though it is interesting, but it's not usually layered. I'm just doing a film called COVID stories with Zee studio. It's a very nice, very emotional subject about a woman, Bengali woman of Chitranjan Park and her COVID story. Then I'm doing another very interesting, large short film called Fedora's Wrinkles, where I play Fedora. And she's a 70 year old prostitute of Mumbai. And her body has given way. She's old. And I of course, add added a lot of age to her. But she has to do it because she needs her chicken and she needs medicines for her heart. So that was a very difficult and difficult thing. But that's what I am doing in terms of the work. All right, round of applause for thank you so much for joining us and talking to us. I will request Karan to. So we'll take a quick wrap up break for five minutes, then we'll reconvene for the awards. Thank you, everyone. So