SHOCKING: When Hema Malini faced depression after being unceremoniously dropped from a film : Bollywood News

It was Hema Malini’s 69^th birthday yesterday and it turned out to be a memorable one for her. Her much-awaited autobiography ‘Beyond The Dream Girl’ written by Ram Kamal Mukherjee was launched with much fanfare and that too in the presence of none other than Deepika Padukone. At this event, the veteran actress spoke about her experiences in the industry and revealed that her beginning in cinema was not great. She shocked everyone by stating that she suffered from depression in the beginning of her career.

SHOCKING: When Hema Malini faced depression after being unceremoniously dropped from a film

Hema Malini elaborated, “I was hardly 13 or 14 when I was taken by filmmaker C V Sridhar in a film called Vennira Adai along with J Jayalalithaa. They shot with me for some days and then realized that I was not fit for that film. Without telling me, they dropped me and somebody else was cast in my place. It was a shock to me. I was anyways not aiming to become a star or anything. My mother was very keen that I should act in films but I was not trained as an actress. However, I agreed with my mother’s wish as I was a very obedient child. But when I got rejected for Vennira Adai, it was a terrible time for me. I didn’t realize then that I was suffering from depression though I was feeling highly uncomfortable.”

She added, “I was a dancer by then and was performing at a lot of dance shows. I was apprehensive that maybe people might feel that I have been rejected and hence, they might not come to see my dance show. They might make fun of me. On top of that, my mother emphasized that I have to prove my worth and I took it as a challenge.”

However, the depression phase didn’t last long for her. Hema Malini said, “I then automatically became spiritual and told God that, ‘You have brought me into this world. It is your duty to ensure that I do the best’. That was the time when I was offered Sapno Ka Saudagar by its lead actor Raj Kapoor and producer B Ananthaswami. B Ananthaswami introduced me in this film as ‘Dream Girl’! I used to fight with him that ‘My name is Hema Malini, why don’t you announce that’? But he was adamant and said, ‘No, you are just Dream Girl’! Nevertheless, the failure that I faced initially was the stepping stone in gaining success”.