We will launch Aalia next year, says Pooja Bedi
She speaks to us about everything from smog in Delhi, discord with her father, comeback to films and remarriage.
Born to bohemian parents, a school topper convinced she would be working in Wall Street, and then ending up entering Bollywood at age of 18 — it’s been quite a journey for Pooja Bedi. In the national capital to participate in the Road to Global Entrepreneurship Summit organised by The Shift Series in association with NITI Aayog and The Global Education and Leadership Foundation, the Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar actress talked about her life, gave tips for good parenting and even dating advice. But before all that the moment she came to Delhi, the smog got her attention first. “I had to go to Gurgaon for dinner with my best friend. At one of the flyovers, we got stuck in traffic. We kept waiting for couple of hours. I started taking a video. People were blaming truck drivers. I also recorded a video of me calling the police for help. They didn’t take the call. My friends later told me I should not have gone out of the car. It’s so horrible to have jams and air quality like this at 11 at night. The city is being held to ransom because the existing laws are clearly not working,” she recounts.
Coming back to her own life struggles, she says, “I am so energetic and affectionate 24x7 that people around me think I do drugs. I grew up in a no man’s land. My mother was ultra liberated and she thought I was backward because I didn’t smoke or do drugs, yet for the society, I was very modern. Mothers would keep their daughters away from me for fear they would get corrupted.” She goes on, “I got married at 24 and my husband asked me to quit movies, which I did because I was crazily in love. Then came the traumatic period. My brother Siddharth committed suicide. Then my mother died. My marriage ended when I was pregnant with my second child. I lost all the support system with little money left. Then the book Who Moved My Cheese changed my life.”
Pooja then embarked on a journey to redeem herself. “Today I help people get a perspective and that comes from having a lot of experiences. Talk of being a cougar, dating married men, a housewife, a divorcee, a single parent… I have been there, done that. People ask me how can I give them relationship advice when my marriage was a failure. I tell them staying put in a bad relationship is not success, leaving a terrible relationship successfully, is a success,” says the 47-year-old.
Asked if she will make a comeback to the big screen, she bursts out laughing, “I’ve been slaughtered as a sex symbol and playing that when I’m nearing 50 will be absurd. The roles that are offered to me are hilarious.”
On her ongoing discord with her father Kabir Bedi, she says, “Things will get sorted out organically. It will correct itself when the reasons behind them correct themselves and he has to go through that transformation before that. It is just a question of time.”
Her father has been married four times but did she give up on marriage after her divorce? “I have entered and exited romantic relationships for certain reasons and I am happy to have shared that journey with these men. I have dated both billionaires and paupers. The reasons why people get married don’t exist in my life. Also, marriage has become such a binding institution and the laws are so anti-men that men are being victimised today. Marriage is seen as a trap and people are choosing not to walk the aisle but be in beautiful relationships. If I ever feel the need to marry I will, not because I ought to.”
If asked she is following Bigg Boss, the former inmate signs off saying, “I have better things to do with my life.”
‘Problem lies with people if they are narrow-minded’
There has been a lot of talk about her daughter Aalia Furniturewalla entering Bollywood. Giving clarity on that, she says, “She has done one year film direction course in New York University. She has done one-year acting course in New York Film Academy. She is currently back in India doing extensive training for Bollywood, busy attending acting, Kathak, contemporary, and singing classes. She is getting loads of offer but I want her to focus on her preparation. Next year, we will launch her.”
Asked if the paparazzi hounds Aalia, the mom says, “She was in Jodhpur the other day doing a photoshoot with Nafisa Ali’s son and she got mobbed. It overwhelmed her as she has not even started her Bollywood journey. But she is a huge Instagram star. I told that it’s great that she has such a huge following because of who she is and not because of her work in films.”
About dealing with trolls, she says, “With bouquets come brickbats. In India, people have narrow-minded views about nudity and boldness. It’s a problem that lies with people, not us. Crazy psycho fans are a threat to security but that’s something that both a sex symbol and an actress portrayed as virginal beauty, face.” She however claims that she obliges every fan with a selfie request because she owes her success to them.
When we remind her that like she had another actress as her namesake in her time, her daughter too will have one, she quips, “It is really funny and they both come from Bhatt family and we both sort of come from Bedi clan. But with so many films being made, there is space for everyone.”