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 When I met Rati Agnihotri after the screening of her Bengali film
‘Aainata’ which figured in the Indian Panorama section of the
International Film Festival of Goa which concluded a couple of days
ago, Rati said that she connected to Goa right from the time that she
had acted in her first film in Hindi- ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’ in which Kamal
Haasan was her leading man and confessed that she has always been very
attached to Goa ever since she had shot for ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’ three
decades ago.
“Believe it or not, since my maternal grand mother was a Saraswat
Brahmin and my maternal grand father was a Portuguese, my ancestral
home is somewhere in Goa though I do not know where exactly it is
located. I love not only the Goan people but also the Goan food.
Besides ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’, I had shot in Goa also for ‘Shaukeen’. I
can never forget the love that I have received from people in Goa,”
Rati added.
Rati confessed that she took a break from acting in films seventeen
years after her marriage because she would have got burnt out
otherwise. She added, “I did not regret quitting acting even a little
bit, because I was then very young and had fallen in love. I needed to
get married and lead a very normal life because I used to feel
claustrophobic. In any case, even when I was at the peak of my career,
I had never believed in quantity and went in for quality when I chose
my films,” she averred.
How did she succumb to the temptation of staging her comeback, that
to after a hiatus of seventeen year? I quizzed Rati. “Frankly speaking,
I had absolutely no clue that I would ever return to cinema. My
comeback was very accidental. I started my second innings after a long
hiatus when Rahul Rawail landed at my house and insisted that I should
play the role of Kajol’s mother in ‘Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi’ in which
Rishi Kapoor played my husband, way back in 2000.”
Rati adds, “My husband Anil Virwani also encouraged me to take to
acting because by then my son Tanuj had grown up and I could afford to
spend time outside the house. I had retired after I had worked with
Rishi Kapoor in ‘Tawaif’. I should confess that it did take me a little
while to get back into the groove as an actress, because I had simply
forgotten films and had to work again. Since I had earlier worked with
Rishi Kapoor in films like ‘Coolie’ and ‘Tawaif’, there was certain
comfort level when I again started working with him after a long
hiatus.”
Rati who has till date acted in films in not just five or six but
ten different languages, stated that she considers privileged because
though a Punjabi girl, she had made her debut when she was just 16 with
the Tamil film ‘Puthiya Varppugal’, which was directed by Bharathi
Raja. “When I was cast by K. Balachander in ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’, which
was the Hindi remake of the Telugu film ‘Maro Charitra’, I had not even
seen the film and did not know what emotions were and whatever accolade
I received for my performance in the film was thanks to Balachander Sir
who groomed me as an actress. I have not looked back ever since.”
Rati admitted that over the years, she has had a huge growth as an
actress in the last 32 years. “I have no regrets with the way my career
has shaped. I remember when I had made my debut as an actor with
‘Puthiya Varppugal’, I did not known the ABC of acting since Bharathi
Rajaa had discovered me when I was in Good Shepherd School and did not
know to fake emotions and just laughed when I was asked to laugh and
cried when I was asked to cry”
Rati elucidates, “I would give the entire credit for shaping me as
an actress to various people like producer L.V. Prasad who introduced
me in Hindi films with ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’, K. Balachander who directed
me in that film, my co-actors like Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. I
remember K. Bhagyaraj also had made his debut as an actor with Puthiya
Varppugal along with me. Since he was also an assistant to Bharathi
Rajaa, he had to coach me in between the takes in Tamil, which was of
great help to me then. I am happy that I have been able to strike the
right balance between being a home maker with a lovely husband like
Anil and a son like Tanuj who is now all set to make his debut as a
leading man shortly.”
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