Two years ago, producer Ashvini Yardi was toying with the idea of a biopic, one that would be different from the scores of biopics out there. The idea was to have an interesting person who would play herself or himself; someone who isn’t ashamed to talk about the negative aspects of his/her life. “In most biopics, people wouldn’t let you show the negative points. But here, the idea was to show all of it the way it is – the good, bad, failures, success everything,” says Ashvini, who was stuck at the idea level for some time because "who would do something like that".
It was around the same time that fashion entrepreneur Masaba Gupta was candidly sharing bit of her life's story on Instagram without being apologetic about her looks, body image, or anything else. “She would share a picture with her pimple, which I think I wouldn’t do even at my age,” laughs Ashvini, who realised Masaba’s life could fit well into the concept she has planned.
But Masaba hadn’t acted before, or done anything remotely close to acting. In fact, as a teenager when she spoke of her aspiration to become an actor, her actor-mother Neena Gupta discouraged her. The love child of cricketer Vivian Richards and Neena, Masaba grew up being bullied for the way she looked. “Ever since I was a young girl, I did want to act. (But) for various reasons, including mom not being on with the idea, I didn’t. And I am glad,” says Masaba. Neena thought an industry like Bollywood that thrives on looks and beauty won’t have enough space for her daughter with her unconventional looks, and that she may be sidelined. It came from a place of concern. Her views, however, have changed after working with Masaba on the Netflix original now.
When Ashvini contacted Masaba and shared the concept for the show, she wasn’t sure that the latter would agree. But Masaba was immediately on board. It was the concept that attracted her initially. “We haven’t seen something similar in India,” says Masaba, adding that acting has always been at the back of her mind. “But I didn’t want to be put in a stereotype or put in a box in a way that I only (get) to do certain kinds of roles because of the way I look, or because of my body type for example. When this came my way, I felt the universe is giving me an opportunity not just to control my narrative about I how I tell my story, but also open up doors for young girls out there who look a certain way, and not (like) a conventional Indian heroine and who still can be on screen,” says Masaba about the show that is an interesting concoction of fact and fiction.
Masaba Masaba begins on a day when there’s a blind item in a Mumbai tabloid about Masaba’s married life with claims that both she and her husband having separate affairs. After a day of being hounded by everyone around her wanting to know if the blind item holds any truth, she goes to her mother’s place and finds comfort in parantha and achaar.
For Neena, it wasn’t really the most interesting stuff to come her way. “It was very boring to play myself,” she sighs, and adds after a pause, “Actually, it was okay. When you are playing someone else, you have to work on it, understand the intricacies, that is much more interesting than playing yourself. This was very easy for me and not so exciting. But then, if someone is doing something on Masaba and someone has to play her mother, I don’t have an option but to play the part. Having said that, I would have done it anyway even if Masaba weren’t a part of it because I thought the script was really nice.”
The script has a very measured approach. Even if it talks about the real situations in the life of Masaba and Neena Gupta, it doesn’t drop names of people associated with them. For instance, Masaba’s husband's name is changed to a fictional one. “We were very sure that we didn’t want people to know which part is fiction and which is real. Most of the things that you see are real and come from their experience,” says Ashvini adding that there are some parts that are also inspired by her and writer-director Sonam Nair’s life. “As women, we often face the same challenges, and since the show wasn’t completely factual, we picked up instances from elsewhere too.”
It was the essence of the show that mattered the most, says Sonam. “Then it doesn’t matter what is fact and what is fiction. The real messaging was more important,” she adds. “Even though I am considered a very public person, there are enough and more things that I never share on any social media or public platform. That’s sacred to me and I held on to it,” says Masaba, who believes that even the fictional moments in the show are very close to reality.
And based on the viewing of the first two episodes, the messaging comes across strongly with the mother-daughter duo trying to fight the many complexities in their life. There are many candid and emotional sequences. In one, Neena Gupta is trying to get back into acting and in the process meets Farah Khan who is planning a female version of Shaukeens. That’s a moment of hope for her. But it soon shatters when a third person informs her that Farah has cast herself in one of the roles and the two other leading ladies were already finalised. Somewhere, it touches upon the frailties of the film industry, how hopes are raised and then wrecked.
“But it’s nothing,” says Neena, confessing to have gone through worse situations in real life. “I have been here for so many years and in all those years, I have suffered a lot. I have seen a lot. I have been rejected so many times. There have been times when I have been signed on a film, my blouse measurements have been taken and then I have been replaced. I have gone through all this. And I think this happens everywhere, not just in this industry. But I take it in my stride. Okay, I didn’t get this or that, but then I got (the TV show) Saans and I did so much TV. I did good work on TV. You don’t get everything, but if you keep at it you get something,” says Neena, who is very happy with the newer prospects that have opened up for her in the last couple of years, starting with Badhaai Ho! It is interesting how she is giving many younger actresses a run for their money with now an item song, Aunty Kisko Bola, as well in Masaba Masaba.
It is easy to assume that going back in time and reliving the moments of life again can often be cathartic. But Masaba says she forgets pain very easily. “It is both a good thing and a bad thing because I can make the same mistakes again. But in this case, I didn’t feel like I was reliving my life. I didn’t think that ‘oh, this happened with me, so sad’. I took it like a job where I was playing a part. I was very happy. I loved reliving it and felt it was happening with somebody else.”
Her attitude to pain may sound “bizzare”, but she says that may be it is her coping mechanism, much to her mother’s amusement who is quick to add, “Sanyas le le Masaba.”
Neena recalls how one scene in one of the later episodes is based around her real experience with vanity vans. “There was a time when I got space in the van shared with three people. Then, it was the one partitioned into two parts. But after Badhaai Ho, I started getting a separate vanity van. It’s a small thing, but it is also a big thing if you look at it,” says the actor, who thinks that these are the moments that would become the strength of the show.
