I did not want to keep waiting for meaty roles in Hindi films: Manasi Parekh Gohil, who won the National Award for Kutch Express

Manasi Parekh Gohil, who was in Delhi to receive the National Award for her Gujarati film Kutch Express, is glad to be focusing on Gujarati cinema now. She shares, “While I got the National Award for Best Actress, I am also happy that it is for a film we produced.” The film won three National awards.

Talking about her switch from Hindi to Gujarati cinema, she says, “A few years ago, Pratik Gandhi invited me to watch a Gujarati film and that’s when I realised how interesting their content was. My husband (singer Parthiv Gohil) and I had started a production house many years ago, but we switched to making Gujarati films only recently. When we first decided to make Kutch Express, many felt it was a mistake and that we should make something for the masses. But I’m glad we made the film.”

Manasi’s base has always been Mumbai; she acted in the film Uri: The Surgical Strike and did TV shows like Gulal and Sumit Sambhal Lega. But she admits that the offers were not interesting enough and hence, decided to move to regional cinema. She shares, “I never wanted to do a TV show if the role was not as good as what I had already done. Also, I did not want to keep waiting for meaty roles in Hindi films. I acted in a Gujarati film Dear Father with Paresh Rawal; I would have waited forever to get such a role in a HIndi film. Today, I am happy to be making films, and as an actress, I want to do interesting roles across different mediums.” She added, "People often complain about lack of opportunities, but instead of getting cynical, I decided to chart my own path. Or course, it was not easy."

Manasi, who has an upcoming Hindi film and an OTT project, shares, "I am keen to work in whatever good comes my way. My focus is on Hindi films and web but whilst I was doing this, we discovered that the Gujarati film industry had a lot of potential for good stories to work. Parthiv, my husband, who has sung songs in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's films Devdas and Saawariya has always dreamt of doing such films and working on good scripts in our production house."



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