Winning the National Award for Kutch Express made me realise that we are on the right track,” says Manasi Parekh , who will soon be seen in an interesting role in Shubhchintak . The Jhamkudi actress, who also runs a production house with her singer-husband Parthiv Gohil, was in Ahmedabad recently. She shares, “My focus as an artiste and producer has always been to bring out unheard stories. There is never a formula that has worked for my films. But the National Award gave me belief-jo kuch bhi hum kar rahe hain, woh sahi hai. I aim to continue that.”
‘Till when will we cast only men as leads?’
Manasi has mostly done films with strong female characters, and she says it’s a conscious choice. She shares, “For how long will we cast only men as leads? I choose films that have women in a strong space. It may not be a lead character, but they should have a voice-not just as a ‘group of women’, it can be a story about one or two women.”
She adds, “Today, writers are keeping me in mind while writing certain scripts, and they are all experimental or untapped topics. So, I feel grateful. When such films are liked, we know that the audience wants to watch such content.”
‘It’s great to see the rise of Gujarati cinema ’
Manasi says “it is a great time for regional cinema,” adding, “While I keep doing Hindi projects too, I believe Gujarati cinema is on the rise and people are enjoying watching our films. It feels great and I love being a part of this phase. With no formula present, it is challenging too.”
She adds, “What happens in big industries, especially for Hindi cinema, is that there is already a path that has been created and you can follow that to get success. But in a growing regional film industry like ours, we are still figuring out our space and that is very exciting for me as an artiste and producer. I don’t want to get stereotyped by playing one kind of role. I want makers to be spoilt for choice while casting me in various genres. My next film, Maharani, is the remake of a Marathi film. I believe adaptations (from one language to another) are amazing. Content is the king now, and audiences want something that clicks with them amidst the many options they have.”
‘As producers, we believe in taking risks’
Manasi, who has co-produced some hit Gujarati films with Parthiv, says, “Parthiv and I are artistes, we aren’t filmmakers per se. We are just taking risks and following our gut feeling while casting actors and making films, like Ratna Pathak Shah in Kutch Express, Viraj Ghelani in Jhamkudi and Swwapnil Joshi in Shubhchintak. We have explored different genres till now. We experiment with the aim to just have fun and do the kind of films that haven’t been made till now.”
‘Bhoomi and I wanted to collaborate for a long time’
Recently, Manasi collaborated with Bhoomi Trivedi for Jogni, a dance number. She shares, “Bhoomi and I wanted to do something like this for a long time. Parthiv had composed a song which he and Bhoomi wrote together. We realised that there are not many good garba videos available, and the ones we have are by Bollywood makers. So, we wanted to do something in Gujarati. Also, it was like a message-two contemporary female artistes can be supportive of each other and be happy about being on screen together.”