Sushmita Sen
Sushmita Sen’s film career has been full of ups and downs, but 26 years ago she achieved what used to be anyone’s dream. Sushmita became the winner of the 43rd Miss Universe contest held in Philippines. Shortly after winning the Miss Universe title in 1994, she spent three years with her family in Los Angeles. She had decided to make a career in modeling, but today she is one of the famous actresses of Hindi cinema.
Mahesh Bhatt’s offer was accepted
There was a time when she had gone to meet her parents in Delhi, when filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt called her to meet her. The actress told him on the phone, ‘If you have called me for any role, I am not interested. I can’t lie.’ Still, Mahesh Bhatt insisted that he just wanted to have coffee together. They met and he pretty much said, ‘You don’t need to act. You have to play your own character, that is Sushmita Sen. Also, when did I say that you are a good actress, I am a very good director. The film he had in mind was based on the journey of Miss Universe and he made ‘Dastak’ (1996). Actually, when this film was offered to Miss Universe because she did not belong to a film family and did not know how to act, she rejected it.
The director had reprimanded the actress
‘Dastak’ was a big budget film shot in Seychelles, Switzerland. This was the only film in which Sushmita Sen had planned to act. Without any preparation he was immediately called for the Muhurat of the film. She recalled, ‘I came out of my vanity van and many media persons were standing in line to meet me.’ Then Bhatt Saheb said, ‘Let them see.’ After all this is the auspicious time of Miss Universe. Before I could give my shot, he changed my entire scene. She cried bitterly on the very first day of shooting of this film. Despite taking repeated retakes of the same shot, she was not able to give the right shot, due to which she had to face the anger of the director. Mahesh Bhatt wanted to make him really angry for the scene so that he could give a good shot and that is what happened.
