Versatile Bollywood actress Aruna Irani has turned a year older today. On her birthday, check out this throwback interview when Aruna emotionally talked about her father.
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00:00 I came in the industry because I'm an uneducated woman.
00:03 So naturally, I couldn't work in an office or a job.
00:08 And my father always used to feel that if my elder daughter had been my son,
00:13 then my family would have been in a worse situation.
00:17 My age is over.
00:19 So at least I would have died in peace that my elder son would have taken care of my family.
00:24 So this always hurt me.
00:26 Why can't a girl do this? Why can't a girl do this?
00:30 Why do you have this wrong notion that only a son can do this for the family and a daughter can't do anything?
00:35 So I wanted to prove myself always.
00:38 So my dreams...
00:41 And I felt the best thing when my father died.
00:44 Just before I wake, he was sitting in the balcony.
00:47 And that time I had just took a new fiat, which was a second-hand fiat.
00:53 It was just 9000 rupees.
00:56 I had just bought that car.
00:58 My father used to stand in the gallery and see.
01:00 He was very happy. He said, "My daughter's car. My daughter's car."
01:03 If somebody would pass by and stand and lean on it, he would send somebody,
01:07 "Go, go. Look at him. He's standing on our car. Ask him to move.
01:11 Ask him to do this. Ask him to do that."
01:14 And before dying, he said one thing. I'm so happy.
01:18 I don't feel regretted. My daughter can take care of my children.
01:23 I'm dying peacefully. That was more than enough for me.
01:27 I'm so sure it was.
01:29 Thank God.
01:30 Asha, tell us that we were a little back on stage.
01:37 You were with your father when you started working.
01:41 Yeah, I started.
01:43 Tell us a little about the stage in the sense that
01:46 what was your best experience on stage?
01:51 No.
01:52 What was your experience?
01:54 And which is the play that you still are very fond of playing that particular role till today?
02:01 What used to happen with me was that my father...
02:04 Because I was about hardly 16, he didn't give me a role.
02:08 But every day I was asked to watch every show.
02:11 If Aruna doesn't come tomorrow, I have to stand in her place.
02:15 If Surekha doesn't come, I have to stand in her place.
02:17 If Bhavna doesn't come, I have to stand in her place.
02:19 So I was supposed to sit down and muck up everybody's line.
02:22 Everybody's line.
02:24 So I would sit down. I would sit down in the play every day.
02:27 I would say her dialogue, her dialogue, her dialogue, so that I would remember.
02:32 The first time I appeared on stage,
02:35 our queen of the stage, Sarita Joshi, whom you know,
02:41 she's a very famous and excellent actress.
02:45 Her problem was that she had some miscarriage that day.
02:49 She couldn't get up. She was aborted.
02:52 Naturally, she can't.
02:54 And this happened in the morning and the show in the evening.
02:57 So she waited till 2 o'clock.
03:00 She might be able to perform, but she was not able to stand.
03:04 So what to do? Call Aruna.
03:06 Where is she? She left.
03:08 In the script play, I was sweating.
03:10 I couldn't understand.
03:13 And she was such a senior actress, Sarita ji.
03:17 To play her role, even though I couldn't stand in front of her,
03:22 and to play her role, and for the first time appearing on the stage,
03:25 I was dead.
03:26 But I was told, "Dialogue, come on."
03:29 As soon as the entry came,
03:31 you say, "What are you doing? Where are you going?
03:34 Why are you going?"
03:36 You speak lines like this.
03:38 My heart was beating so fast.
03:40 "What are you doing? Where are you going? Why are you going?"
03:42 People could not follow my lines.
03:44 I used to speak so fast.
03:46 Because my heart was beating so fast.
03:48 I could not forget that experience.
03:50 My co-artists used to say, "One minute, one minute."
03:53 Now they understood that the public is not following what she is saying
03:58 because she is saying it too fast.
04:01 Because she is getting heart-pounding.
04:03 They said, "One minute, one minute. What are you saying?
04:05 What are you trying to say? Will you please tell me quietly?"
04:08 So, I got scared.
04:11 "What are you doing? Why are you doing it? And why are you going there?"
04:14 Then I understood that I am going wrong here.
04:18 That was my first experience on stage.
04:20 And that's how we did it.
04:22 This was a very long story from stage to screen.
04:28 And how did you appear on screen?
04:30 When you appeared on screen, over the years, we saw you in different roles.
04:35 As an artist, as an artist, as a mother.
04:39 As a mother.
04:41 As glamorous. All, all.
04:44 How did you justify? I mean, how did you fit yourself?
04:48 I mean, how did you put yourself in that?
04:50 And then come out of it easily and go back to it again.
04:54 And not let it overshadow your life, your lifestyle.
04:58 Yeah.
04:59 Many people ask me, "With such a glamorous,
05:03 such a vampish, such a comedy image,
05:05 you are a mother. How could you do it?"
05:08 My biggest support for that has been my fans.
05:12 They really accepted me.
05:15 They accepted me in that role.
05:17 And if they didn't like me,
05:20 then naturally I wouldn't have been successful.
05:22 As you remember, for 35 years,
05:25 Pranab sir played only one role, of a villain.
05:28 35 years of his career, he did only one character.
05:32 And after that, overnight, he did a film, 'Ukkaar'.
05:36 Which changed his total image.
05:39 And then he started doing all good character roles.
05:43 So, I got the grace of God and my fans.
05:49 So, everything happened.
05:51 Which did you cherish the most?
05:53 The character which you cherished portraying the most?
05:57 Which character you thought, "Oh, this really suits me."
06:00 "I think I was just made for this."
06:02 No, I cannot say.
06:05 Because comedy roles, when I do,
06:07 I feel that I am a very funny person in my personal life also.
06:11 And, if you say, "Vampish role."
06:14 When I really lose my temper, I am no more less than a vamp.
06:18 Let me tell you, I am very wild. Very wild.
06:23 I am a very emotional person.
06:25 Emotional means,
06:28 there is one strange thing about me.
06:31 If you say, "You will bring a mountain of sorrows in front of me."
06:35 That will never make me cry.
06:37 I can fight that fight by banging.
06:40 But, if you tell me, "Aruna, sorry, I said that by mistake."
06:44 Pouring tears, I start crying.
06:47 But, that makes me cry. I am a very emotional person, basically.
06:51 So, I don't feel that I felt any difficulty.
06:57 I could cherish anywhere, any role I could cherish.
07:00 Doing it, performing it.
07:02 So, I didn't have any difficulty.
07:04 There was only one thing that was difficult.
07:06 Feeling shy. I could never feel shy.
07:08 When someone says, "Director, you feel shy."
07:13 In my younger days, the heroine would feel shy when she sees the hero.
07:18 I used to sweat to feel shy.
07:21 I could never do it.
07:23 I don't know why I didn't feel shy.
07:25 There was only one problem.
07:28 Yeah.
07:29 [Music]