Veteran actress Asha Parekh who is known for her iconic movies like 'Teesri Manzil', 'Kati Patang', 'Chirag' and more was conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke award in 2020. But due to the pandemic, the actress received her award at the 68th National Film Awards Ceremony this year from President Droupadi Murmu.
Parekh attended IFFI (International Film Festival Of India) in Goa recently and she revealed her first reaction when she heard about getting a Dadasaheb Phalke award. The actress expressed, "This award is being given to a lady after a long time. I think it’s been twenty years. I am the first Gujarati to get a Dadasaheb Phalke Award. So, it was a great thing for me. It didn’t register in my mind for two days. And when I realized what I had got, I was thankful to God. Because it was too big a surprise for me. About Dadasaheb Phalke, there was a Marathi film 'Harishchandrachi Factory' which we had selected as India’s official entry to the Oscars when I was the chairperson of the jury. So, I have been associated with Dadasaheb Phalke for a very long time."
Interestingly, the actress received her award just one day before her 80th birthday. The actress spoke about her career and journey at length at IFFI. Talking about her career-defining film, Parekh said, "The critics always thought that I was a glamor girl and I couldn’t act for nuts. But after 'Do Badan', the press accepted me as a good artist. A critic who was critical of all films had written a paragraph that I had done really well. That made my day. After that, I got films like 'Kati Patang', 'Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki' and people started taking me seriously."
But after getting so much recognition, the actress decided to quit acting. She recalls, "I just did those films for the heck of it. I don’t know why did I do them. There was an actor with whom I did 2-3 films. He would never keep time. For a 9:30 am shift, he would come at 6:30 pm. I was thinking what was I doing by just sitting here? I was playing a character role. That’s when I decided that I did not want to act anymore."
Further, the lady also got into direction and made some memorable television shows like 'Kora Kagaz' which she enjoyed. However, she got disappointed soon. "There are deadlines to meet. But I enjoyed doing 'Kora Kagaz'. I had a superb heroine in Renuka Shahane. I really enjoyed making it and people also liked it so it was a big hit. Somehow, I started getting disappointed because the TV media had too many EPs (Executive Producers) and they would tell me that my heroine is heinous. It should be done like this and that. I told them that I like my heroine the way she is. Don’t ask me to change her hairstyle. There was interference in dialogues too. So, I decided, 'no more television.”