Exclusive: “Who Am I Supporting?”- Neena Gupta on Being Called a Supporting Actor
The much-loved comedy-drama Panchayat has returned with its fourth season, bringing back its quirky characters. In an exclusive conversation with Filmfare, actress Neena Gupta, who plays Manju Devi Dubey, the Pradhan (President) of Gram Panchayat, spoke about the new season and shared an interesting take on how her role is often categorised.
The fourth season picks up right where the third season left off and dives into the elections in the village of Phulera. It is Manju Devi vs Kranti Devi (Sunita Rajwar) in a head-to-head battle to become the next Pradhan. Despite playing an important role in the series, Gupta is labelled as a ‘supporting’ character, something that she finds puzzling.
She told us, “Mereko kahi baar samajh mein nahi ata yeh supporting actor/actress ka kya hai…Ek actor hai, aapko agar lagta hai mereko yeh bhi pasand ayi, woh bhi pasand ayi, toh do awards dedo. Yeh supporting kya hota hai? How do you decide? (I honestly don’t understand this whole concept of ‘supporting actor’ or ‘supporting actress.’ If you think you liked this performance and that one too, then just give two awards. What even is supporting? How do you decide that?)”
Neena continued, “Panchayat mein supporting kitne mil gaye mujhe. Main supporting kaha hu? Kisko support kar rahi hu? (laughs) Mujhe samajh mein aj tak nahi aya. 6 award dedo agar apko 6 actors pasand aye. Supporting kya hota hai? Abhi kahi main padh rahi thi ki Pradhan ji ko supporting actor ka award milna chahiye. ( I have received so many ‘supporting’ awards for Panchayat. But where am I supporting? Who am I supporting (laughs)? I’ve never quite understood it. If you liked six performances, then give six awards. What is this idea of supporting? I was just reading somewhere that Pradhanji (her character) should get a supporting actor award!”
Interestingly, she has won the Filmfare OTT Awards for Best Supporting Actress in Comedy Series twice for the first and second seasons of Panchayat. The series also stars Jitendra Kumar, Raghubir Yadav, Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, Sanvikaa, Durgesh Kumar, Sunita Rajwar and Ashok Pathak, among others.
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