I couldn’t handle the fame I got with ‘Lagaan’, says Gracy Singh
In an age when associating with the Oscars or any other international appreciation is used as a key to stardom, actress Gracy Singh, who made a promising debut with ‘Lagaan’, says that she could not handle the sudden fame which came her way.
But the actress, who took up parallel films after a few commercial ones, says she has no complaints that the hype surrounding the Oscar-nominated film did no good to her career.
“I got more attention and stardom than I wanted at the time. There was too much hype around for me to handle. I have no complaints,” the actress said.
Gracy also starred in Rajkumar Hirani’s superhit ‘Munnabhai MBBS’, but was replaced by actress Vidya Balan in the sequel ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’.
Challenging roles
“I knew that Raju was going to make a series of films. It was my decision to take up more challenging and serious kind of cinema rather than commercial films,” Gracy said.
She gracefully moved on to a number of issue-based films in order to satisfy her creative side as an actress. Her latest film ‘Aseema’ has Gracy playing the lead character of a single mother who transforms her life from a simple village girl to an independent woman.
“I am playing the title character Aseema, who is the daughter of a zamindar, but goes on to lead a life of her own and make a place for herself in society,” said Gracy.
The film, directed by Sishir Mishra, is based on an Oriya novel written by Shailaja Kumari Aparajita Mohanty and is set to release on December 18.
“I was apprehensive about accepting the role because I did not think I could live up to it. The story demanded a powerful actress like Shabana Azmi or Smita Patil,” said Gracy, who stars opposite actor Aseem Merchant in the film.
The film spans 16 to 60 years of Aseema’s life and has Gracy play a single mother too. “I did not act in the film, I actually lived through the experiences of the character,” said Gracy.
The actress has been missing from the commercial scene for sometime now and has concentrated on women-centric art house films, be it in Hindi or in regional languages.
“I enjoy parallel films more and have a few of them lined up in Tamil, Telegu and Malayalam. I’m playing the sarpanch of a village in a film called ‘The White Land’ which is set in Gujarat,” said Gracy.
“I am also doing some commercial films in Bollywood like ‘Chand Milta Hai Chand’ in which I play a radio jockey and ‘Midnight’, which is a thriller,” the actress said.
