EXCLUSIVE: ‘Surname Opened The Door’ — Shruti Haasan Talks About ‘Nepotism’ In Film Industry
Speaking at an ABP Desam event, Shruti Haasan spoke on a wide range of topics, including career, family, personal growth, and nepotism.
Hyderabad: Actor Shruti Haasan has carved a place for herself in the film industry with her performances in diverse roles. Despite her acclaimed work, though, she has been the focus of the 'nepotism' debate throughout her career. Speaking exclusively to ABP Live, Shruti spoke on a wide range of topics, including her career, her family and her personal growth after reaching her 30s.
Here are some excerpts from her interview to senior journalist Kaveree Bamzai at event held in Hyderabad on Saturday to mark one year of ABP Desam, the Telugu platform of ABP News.
Speaking about the Tamil industry, Shruti Haasan said: “I do know one thing I was never enamoured by Mumbai or Bollywood being this like special Gattaca or Superstar Spaceship or something. Because I grew up with multilingual parents and the access to Hindi film industry and I didn't see the difference really.”
She said it was fate and destiny that brought her to the Telugu films. “Telugu holds a very special place because you know launching into Cinema with Hindi and then Tamil just a stone's throw away. Grew up in Chennai I never ever had a very deep-rooted historic/familial connection to Hyderabad or Telugu cinema at all.”
About growing up as a superstar's daughter, Shruti said: “I used to find it really fascinating to see my friends' parents who went to work in a suit and be like my dad never wears a suit to work in the morning. So it's always fascinating on the other side. I never took it for granted I would say but um my parents never brought me up with the sense of you know we are these people. They're just normal parents.”
Asked what people tell her about being Kamal Hassan's daughter, she said: “I'm 30 plus now and like I've been paying my own bills for a long time so I think they figured.”
Shruti also described her surname as a ‘designer handbag’ and said, “That handbag got passed down to me.”
“I'm so grateful for the name that's a gift that's been passed down but I've also been raised with that sense of it's not just some stuff you get for free you have to pick it up and hold it up in your own way whatever way that. so I'm very grateful for the freedom that was allowed to me to do it in my own way,” she added.
Breaking down the common understanding of nepotism, Shruti said, “I understand that the surname opened the door. Using that surname I was able to make a mark. But the mark has to be made by us and that hard work is universally the same for everybody. And I can proudly say that nobody's picked up the phone and asked for ‘Can You cast my daughter’, they said okay you want to do this do it on your.”
Shruti also talked about a special quote that changed her life. “I read something and it's a very old quote and I was just like oh my God I'm going to live my life completely differently now. And it said, ‘we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.’ and I was like how come I've not heard this before. So, that really kind of changed my perspective to the way I write, the way I perform and the way I am every day.”
After years of working in the industry, she took a sabbatical of almost two to three years. Speaking about that, she said, “I think it was basically because I felt like I was on this treadmill and we all feel that at some point we're just like you know we're in the job but doing the right thing we're doing what we're supposed to and but there's a niggling part of you that doesn't want to wake up on Monday at 9 00 a.m and then that path starts to take over in my case I didn't ignore it I listened to it and my version of Monday morning and I said no I need to realign myself I didn't like a lot of the work.”
Shruti added: “I didn't enjoy it. I felt there was more within me and that had nothing to do with the exterior world it was a very internal process of understanding who I was. I love that break that I took because I could recalibrate myself and I think whether it's personally/professionally taking the time time to recalibrate and reiterate who you are is very important and my favourite artists have always done that with themselves and their career.”
Shruti had a few parting words for the audience at the end of the interview: "Just keep dreaming!"
See the full interview here:
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