Shilpa Shirodkar returns

You know what they say: Once an actor, always an actor. Shilpa Shirodkar — who was a prominent actress all through the 1990s with hits like Kishen Kanhaiya, Hum, Aankhen, Khuda Gawah and Gopi Kishen to her credit — is now back in front of the camera. She plays a significant role in this week’s actioner Guns Of Banaras.

Shilpa announces that she is now open to other acting offers. “There’s so much happening in our cinema now and things have changed so much since I worked there. Everybody is more professional now. In the 90s, I’d be doing two shifts and running from one studio to another. Everything was haphazard, now everyone knows his or her job. It’s a pleasure to be part of the industry again. For an actor my age, there are so many kinds of roles on offer, and I’m not looking at playing the conventional romantic lead at this stage of my career,” she says.

Her ten-year career as a leading lady has left her feeling grateful for the experience. “I think I’m the only actress of my generation who got to work with Dev Anand sahab in Return Of Jewel Thief and Dilip Kumar sahab in Kalinga, which never released, but I did get to work with the greatest actor of our cinema. As for the third in the great trio of super-actors, Raj Kapoor. I went to meet Raj sahab with my mother at his farm for a possible lead in Henna. He looked at me and said, ‘I wish I had  Incidentally, it is widely believed that Shilpa is older than Namrata when in fact it’s the opposite.“That’s because I did everything before Namrata. I joined films before her, I got married and became a mother first,” Shilpa laughs about her sister, with whom she is still close. “We became even closer after we lost our parents. I make it a point to be in India for every release of my brother-in-law Mahesh Babu,” says Shilpa proudly.