Masaba Gupta: If you don't speak your truth, it gets buried into your body and gets manifested into an illness

It’s been almost a month since the release of the second season of Masaba Masaba. Helmed by Sonam Nair, Masaba Masaba is a show based on the life of the mother-daughter duo Neena Gupta and Masaba.
In an exclusive conversation with ETimes, Masaba Gupta opens up on her life beyond stardom and fame, how she reflects on her growth as an actor, and most importantly in her life. Here are excerpts from the conversation.

I don't think I've ever shared this. I was going to therapy in 2018 and I remember my therapist told me that you have a picture, a photograph of yourself as a kid in your house. Just go home to it and apologise to her because you've kept her suppressed for so long.
And I remember we started writing season one of Masaba Masaba in the end of 2018 and we shot in 2019. And I said, why not have a mini version of me who's not just a voice in my head, but she's an actual person who's always there. So in moments of grief or stress or happiness, she's always there.
Because I think none of us truly ever grew up. There's always that little part of our brain or our bodies, our conscience, that is always saying, I wish I was a kid and how would ‘little me’ deal with this. And I think kids have this incredible amount of bravery. They are spontaneous, they are always happy. They're almost foolishly happy.
It's such basics that give them joy. That was the whole idea. I remember what my therapist said and I said, we have to have 'mini me' because I feel like we all suppress the child in us, but we should acknowledge it and use it correctly.


Yes. Post-Covid, I remember that each time I would recover, I would just think my heart was going to beat out of my chest every night. And I don't know whether it was just the uncertainty of life ahead of us.
I had my business, and then I had season two. I have a new brand launching, so there's just a lot that's always happening. And I just think with me, every night that I go home, I think I decompress. I deal with my fears every evening. I make that a point because otherwise, I would just not be able to get up the next day. Whether it's somebody you want to hire, somebody who's super senior, or who just suddenly quit, you deal with betrayal. You have feelings of betrayal. You have feelings of 'Did I do enough? Did I do enough as a boss? Did I invest enough time in this? Did I not do this correctly?' There are just questions in your head all the time. I shot season one, literally when I went to sign my divorce papers. I was on set in the next 15 minutes. So I just think I've become that kind of person.
Earlier, I used to put it under the carpet and see how to deal with it later, but I feel like it just manifests into something else, so you have to deal with it. So every evening I go home, spend a couple of hours without my phone or with friends or with somebody I love, and I just deal with my fears. Like, I talk myself through it.
The more you overcome small fears, the easier it is to deal with the larger ones. Baby steps matter. I have just started speaking my mind more and the one message that we have for everyone in this season is that just speak your truth. If you don’t, it gets buried into your body and gets manifested into an illness.

I credit everything that I’ve been able to do and become today, is because I was brought up in a particular way. I see a lot of people whose parents are actually the reason for their downfall. And that’s purely because — it’s not the kid's fault. If you raise a child to think that the sun shines out of their backside, of course this child wouldn’t want to work during the day. Of course, this child doesn’t want to get up and do something. If they have access to all the money in the world, if they have access to a great holiday, the best cars, the best things, how will they ever learn how to treat people well or earn their living?
I see a lot of grown-ups and I see a lot of kids. They didn’t even teach their kids how to talk to somebody or how to respect them. Luckily both my father and mother are self-made. They came from nothing. You know till today, my father will never misuse a privilege. The same goes for my mother. At this age, my mom wants to work hard and keep going better and better each passing day. At any given point, I was never told that your business is going well, so now enjoy your money. I work hard because I just feel like at any point, something can be taken from me.