Shilpa Shetty recalls making Revathi cry because she showed up in full makeup to play an HIV positive character in Phir Milenge
Actor Shilpa Shetty confessed that her Phir Milenge director Revathi cried when she saw that Shilpa had arrived on set in full makeup, to play an HIV-positive character who’d just been sacked from their job. Revathi took Shilpa aside and explained to her that she cannot look like this in the film, and that made Shilpa reconsider everything that she knew about acting.
She appeared on Mashable India’s Bombay Journey show a couple of months ago, and in a new video comprising of deleted conversations from that episode, Shilpa recalled this story. She said that she had never spoken about it publicly.
Shilpa also credited Revathi for having imparted her vast knowledge to her, and said that it helped greatly in her evolution as an actor. She said, “You shouldn’t be stuck in a cage as an arte. You think that you must perform within certain boundaries, and live up to your public image. I credit Revathy for helping me break out of this image.”
She continued, “Revathi once cried. I was playing the protagon, who was HIV positive. She’d just been thrown out of her job, she was undergoing treatment… And I showed up with mascara, and under-eye makeup, and rose… Revathi saw me and was shocked. She said, ‘You cannot wear this’. But I was concerned about how I’d look, with my dark circles and no makeup. But as an actor, I realised, you have to do justice to your character. You’re playing a character, you’re not Shilpa Shetty. Audiences will appreciate the character if it is portrayed authentically. So, Revathi said, ‘You take off the makeup’, and she went into a room and burst out crying. I still remember… Nobody knows this… That was wrong on my part. I got better after that.”
Inspired the Oscar-winning Hollywood film Philadelphia, Phir Milenge was released in 2004, and also starred Abhishek Bachchan and Salman Khan. The film wasn’t a commercial success, but Shilpa’s performance is still regarded as the best of her career.
