Roja Actor Madhoo On Being Hema Malini's Cousin: "Her Stature Gave Me A Lot Of Dignity"

Roja actor Madhoo talked about her relation with the legendary actor Hema Malini and how this connection helped her to earn "dignity" in the industry in an interview with Zoom. ICYDK, Madhoo is Hema Malini's cousin and Juhi Chawla married her (Madhoo's) husband's cousin. However, more than Juhi Chawla, Hema Malini has an impact on Madhoo's life and professional choices. Madhoo told Zoom, "I am Hema ji's cousin and Juhi ji my sister-in-law married to my husband's cousin. We are a family of actors. But, Juhi ji came into my life much later as a family member, only after I got married. And when I got married, I had kind of left the industry. So her being in the family, emotionally, or mentally, or physically, did not affect me. But me coming from Hema ji's family had an impact and only good impact. The thing is, coming from the home of an artist of Hema ji's stature gave me a lot of dignity."

Madhoo also spoke about the unpleasant experiences an aspiring actress goes through in Mumbai. However, Madhoo considered herself lucky as she got spared from such experiences as her father was a producer and she was related to Hema. Madhoo told Zoom, "So I carried that kind of dignity, some kind of respect. It did not give me a movie, it did not give me a hit, it did not give me appreciation even, but it gave me access and respect. If I went to somebody's office, I was treated with respect. So that much respect I got because I came from Hema ji's home."

Madhoo, in an earlier interview with Pinkvilla, talked about why she left the industry as she didn't get meaty roles coming her way. "Talking about sexism and typecasting, I was playing the heroine role so all the heroines at that time were typecast. We had some amazing songs to dance and sing to and then we had a few romantic scenes but I got lucky to do a few films like Yeshwant and Pechaan and even in my first film, Phool Aur Kaante."

"I played varied kinds of roles in different languages and have no complaints about the roles that came my way but yes, at one point towards the end of my career, I decided to exit, and that's when I started to feel I wanted to do more but I was not getting that kind of roles," Madhoo continued.

Madhoo was last seen in Eagle. It's a Telugu film directed by Karthik Gattamnen. It featured Ravi Teja in the titular role alongside Navdeep, Vinay Rai, Anupama Parameswaran and Kavya Thapar.