Mahima Chaudhry recalls negativity, groupism and abusive langauge on set when she started out in the industry, reveals Subhash Ghai made her cry once during 'Pardes' but it helped her

Mahima Chaudhry made her Bollywood debut opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Subhash Ghai’s 'Pardes'. While the film turned out to be a hit and continues to be memorable even today, in a recent interview, Mahima revealed how shooting the film wasn't easy. The director scolded her during a take, leaving her in tears—an experience she later realised resulted in one of her most memorable scenes. While she described the incident as a learning experience, Mahima said her second film, 'Daag', directed by Raj Kanwar, was far less positive. She termed the atmosphere on sets during her early years as “bad behaviour,” recalling how shouting and abusive language were often normalised.

Mahima was asked if she had encountered negativity on film sets. She responded and said in this chat with Siddharth Kannan, “It has happened many times. People used to shout loudly on the mic, including abusive language, it was nonsense. I remember that someone was shouting like this, a male actor asked me if I was aware he is trying to indirectly say it to us,” she said.




She further explained, “I told him yes. He said that your facial expressions don’t look like you are understanding that indication. So, you have to pretend that you don’t understand. Now, they don’t have the audacity because there are cameras everywhere and people will see their bad behaviour in 30 seconds. But earlier, there was a lot of poor behaviour and negativity. There was even groupism. This happened in the beginning of my second film.”

Mahima also revealed that she deliberately began speaking in English as a way to protect herself in uncomfortable situations. “They were saying to other people, ‘Tum log kyu nahi samajhte? (Why don’t you understand),’ but I know it was meant for me. If they are not attacking you directly, you pretend you don’t understand. I used to talk in English intentionally and ask, ‘Excuse me, did you just say that I have to step here and do this scene?’ I felt that they would say a lot to me in Hindi, but with English, they would take time to say. This was my defense mechanism.”

When asked whether such behaviour made it difficult to focus on her performance, Mahima said that in some cases, it even helped. Recalling another moment from 'Pardes', she shared how Subhash Ghai’s scolding worked in her favour. “It sometimes helps when you get scolded by someone. It happened with me during my first film. Subhash ji scolded me badly once and then I did the phone scene, that’s the one everyone liked,” she said.

Elaborating further, she added, “He made me cry in a way. You had to cry in that scene and you have been already crying, your voice is like that, so it’s fantastic, it helped. It was different in the first film obviously, but the second film that I am talking about, that wasn’t a very good experience.”

Mahima is currently promoting her upcoming romantic comedy-drama 'Durlabh Prasad Ki Dusri Shadi', co-starring Sanjay Mishra, which is slated for release on December 19. She was last seen in the Netflix film 'Nadaaniyan', featuring Khushi Kapoor and Ibrahim Ali Khan in lead roles.

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