Sushmita Sen transitioned from beauty contest winner to actress with ease. She went on to have a tremendous cinematic career, receiving critical acclaim as well as popular adoration. She did, however, take a nearly ten-year vacation after working in films for over a decade.
Sushmita chose to return to acting with a web series rather than a film after that. In a recent interview, the actress explained that it was because mainstream Bollywood was not providing her with the types of roles she desired.
Sushmita remarked in a video engagement with film critic Sucharita Tyagi for the Critics Choice Short Film and Series Awards’ Facebook page, “I think the 10-year hiatus set the priorities in order. It told me what I need to do and what not to do. Mainstream cinema wasn’t giving me what I wanted. A lot of it was a pre-conceived notion of my age and my screen age and that I hadn’t worked for ten years.”
Sushmita’s last film before taking a break from acting was the 2010 comedy Dulha Mil Gaya, in which she co-starred with Fardeen Khan and Shah Rukh Khan in a cameo role. In 2020, she made a comeback with the Disney+ Hotstar online series Aarya. In the meanwhile, the actress stated that raising her two kids, Renee and Alisah, was her first priority.
The actress added that her own inability and reluctance to network with people meant she missed out on opportunities as well. She said, “I don’t know what the mindset was or maybe I was not putting myself out there. I have never been good at that. I am no good at networking. It did not work for me.”
Sushmita is now seen in the film Aarya. The show has already broadcast two seasons, with a third in the pipeline.
