Remember Bhagyashree, who made her debut with Salman Khan in the 1989 hit Maine Pyar Kiya, then slipped into oblivion by marrying businessman Himalaya and refusing to work with anybody else but him?
Breaking news is that she is back in Bollywood celeb, in a new avatar. Not as the cute-girl-next-door who was romanced by the raw and rugged Khan but as a sensuous woman out to make men go weak in the knees and challenge the actresses who usurped her position back then.
The actress has undergone a startling transformation. “It’s strange, but this realisation that I can break the shackles and undo the strings that were tying me down happened when I did river rafting in Hrishikesh,” revealed Bhagyashree. “Earlier I wouldn’t dare to try this adventure sport. But once I was through with it, I realised that I could do whatever I wanted, I could venture into territories I was sceptical about, I could let go of things I was holding onto.”
What followed this rediscovery was a reinvention. The makeover included a new look because friends told her to get rid of ill-fitting clothes and wear things that complement her figure. “I have always had a toned body and stylist Nisha Sagar helped me out and here I am...” she added. The actress is now meeting filmmakers, reading scripts, and will soon be seen as Suniel Shetty’s wife in Anant Mahadevan’s Red Alert — The War Within .
She’s not seeking to recapture the lost years. “When you look back, you ask yourself ‘What if?’ But then what’s done is done. I can’t change my past but I can alter my present, my future,” said Bhagyashree who had turned down several big banner films after Maine Pyar Kiya because they did not co-star husband Himalaya. The three films that she did with him flopped at the box-office. “It had a major impact on my life, professionally. But then, my priorities were different,” she admitted wistfully.
She took a break, went on to do regional films, television. “Regional films offered me better roles and I was happy, but then mainstream Hindi cinema has a wider reach,” admitted the actress. Meanwhile, her contemporaries marched on with their careers. “All the actors are married in the industry and the actresses are not. It just goes to prove that women don’t need men anymore,” she noted with a laugh. “Women are more career-oriented these days. It’s a good trend. It’s the face of new India. If they are happy, it’s a good decision. Nothing is binding them, they’ve got wings, they are free to fly.”
Source : Times of India