Six years after Begum Jaan (2017), Gauahar Khan returned to the big screen with Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon’s action entertainer Ganapath. The film saw her in a cameo role where she played the younger version of Tiger’s mother. With conversations about the need for more age-appropriate roles gaining ground in Bollywood, Gauahar essaying the part of a contemporary actor’s mother onscreen made a few headlines.
But in an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, she reveals that she had no qualms about playing ‘a young mother’ and getting typecast a certain way. She tells us, “I never looked at this way that, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to get bracketed.’ I asked myself, what’s my presence like onscreen? It was that of a young pregnant woman. Yes, her child grows up to become someone else but that’s another story.”
However, the one thing that made Gauahar apprehensive about taking on this role in Ganapath is the fact that she didn’t want to be relegated to an actor who only plays small parts at a time when she is being offered substantial lead roles in the OTT space. “Vikas Bahl, the director, is a very good friend of mine. He was kind enough to write this character keeping me in mind. I knew about it right from the beginning. Over the years, I’ve started playing leads. I had Shiksha Mandal and Bestseller last year. That’s why I told Vikas that I don’t think I should be playing this particular character in Ganapath at this point,” she says.
What eventually led her to sign the film was when Vikas informed her that she would be getting the chance to work with Amitabh Bachchan and share a few scenes with him. “Vikas gave me the biggest bait and told me that Mr Bachchan will be playing my father-in-law. After that, I probably told him a yes in a nanosecond (laughs). How many people get the opportunity to stand next to him?” remarks Gauahar.
Recently, she took to social media to share her gratitude about receiving the chance to collaborate with the legendary star. Reiterating how her cameo appearance in the film gave her memories worth a lifetime, she states, “I feel so happy to have shared screen space with him. In one scene, he’s making me wear a dupatta. In another, I’m laughing with him in a boxing ring. Even if I had him giving a voiceover to a scene I’m acting in, I would have said yes. That’s why, my special appearance in Ganapath was a special experience for me.”
Ganapath might not have created an impact at the box office but Gauahar tells us that she has received a lot of attention and praise for her role in the film. Sharing her excitement, she adds with a laugh, “I loved the way I looked in the film. Even with all the mud on my face, I still looked so pretty and that made me very happy.”
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