Manisha Koirala: For an actor to be a good politician, it’s struggle

Mumbai: Manisha Koirala’s father Prakash Koirala is a former Cabinet Minister and her grandfather Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala was the Prime Minister of Nepal. Despite being associated with a prominent political family, the actor is not interested in joining politics.

In an exclusive conversation with ANI, the ‘Bombay’ actor shared the reason why she is not keen to get into the political arena.

“I feel for an actor to be a good politician, it’s a struggle. Because as an actor, we get so much attention. So much is like on our call. We are like bosses. A politician is basically though there is a leader and you drive the people but you are also a servant of the people,” said Koirala.

She continued, “You are there to help people so if you have understood this if you have accepted that you are basically a servant of the people and there is a sense of service, then you will succeed. But a lot of actors have not been able to go beyond their own because we are pampered a lot. So many eyes are on us. So much attention we get. If we can leave that pampered-ness, then we can be a very good person in politics.”

Koirala was born into a politically-prominent family and this is the reason she understands politics very well and feels that it is not just a means to gain power.

As she mentioned, “Politics for me is service. Politics for me is not power. Politics for me is not that I want to be a PM or I want to be a minister or ten people are behind me.”

Although Koirala comes from a very illustrious political family from Nepal, she entered the film industry and opted for acting as a profession which was completely new to her and her family.

She said, “I was a black sheep of the family, but it turned out the other way around. I grew up in Banaras and my schooling was in Vasant Kanya Maha Vidyalaya and then from there, of course, Army Public School in Delhi, I studied for two years. Then after that, I got into movies.”

She first did a Nepali ad film which she got because of her mother’s cousin, “He was a batchmate of Jaya ji and everybody in Pune. So he was an ad film-maker in Nepal. So he called me and got my makeup done and took my photo and told me that you are very photogenic. Will you do an ad film? I said yes and from there developed an interest in acting and said that I wanted to go to Bombay. I want to be in the film industry. There was a lot of opposition as nobody knows that industry.”

Talking about the political scenario in Nepal, she said, “I grew up in a political family and I understand politics. My grandmother would say, it’s a sewa, and it’s for the people. I asked my father how do you define politics? And he said it’s a dream that you have for the people. So everything is for the people. And whenever that gets detached from reality, there’s trouble. I feel if the current lot of political people involved in Nepal could understand.”

Koirala continued, “Nepal is a landlocked country. Nepal is also very traditional in mind. Nepalese people are also very forward-thinking and very open to it. It’s a good society. It’s an open society but at the same time very rooted in tradition.”

She further shared her take on democracy and the constitution in Nepal and how it affected people. The constitution in Nepal came into effect in 2015.

The actress said, “I think there is no other solution to democracy. However, it is not a facade of democracy. But in a true sense, there should be a democracy. A stable democracy.”

Giving her insight on the impact of the constitution on people, she said, “They should have given a space to the monarch. 90 percent of the people or 80 percent of the people are Hindu in Nepal. Somehow or the other respects the king. That factor should not have been overlooked. And somehow it was. And somehow it's not going down too well… the sudden changes, sudden this thing.”

The Nepali royal massacre occurred on 1 June 2001 at the Narayanhiti Palace.

Recalling the massacre in the palace, she said, “I was shooting and I was in London at that time. And it was completely devastating. I was like howling. My mother was with me. My dad has cried and howled on the phone.”

Meanwhile, on the work front, she is known for her movies such as ‘1942: A Love Story’, ‘Bombay’, ‘Khamoshi: The Musical’, ‘Gupt’, ‘Dil Se’, and many more.

Koirala is currently being lauded for her role as Mallika Jaan in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s debut web series ‘Heeramandi’.

In the show, Koirala  shared screen space with Sonakshi Sinha, Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Shaikh and Aditi Rao Hydari among others. Set against the backdrop of India’s struggle for independence in the 1940s, the show explores the lives of courtesans and their patrons, delving into the cultural dynamics of Heeramandi. 

ANI