Sushmita Sen, a class apart

Sushmita Sen has been away from the spotlight for quite sometime now. She made her last appearance in a Bengali film, Nirbaak. So it was no surprise when she was welcomed with loud cheers as she walked down the runway for designer Sashi Vangapalli at the Lakme Fashion Week this Sunday.

Dressed in her showstopper outfit, the actress sat with us for a quick chat after her stellar show. For someone who admittedly likes dressing up in black, the outfit turned out to be “spectacular.” “It was almost as if I was floating with the dress on the ramp. Black is my go-to colour, and to wear an all lavender outfit was amazing,” she smiles.

Life came full circle for Sushmita Sen after she judged a beauty pageant in Phillipines last month — the same place where she began her journey as Miss Universe. The actress recently met four of her namesakes in Manila. They were all named after her when she won the crown in 1994. “I met only four girls but I realised that there are thousands of them. I started crying with fake lashes on and that was such a bad idea,” she laughs as she recalls the experience. She added, “This shows that there are no boundaries to love and acceptance. Their parents have not only honoured me but also India, with their graciousness.”  

The actress was last seen in Bollywood’s No Problem (2010). Thereafter she did the Bengali film Nirbaak. Her decision to stay away from Bollywood is an amalgamation of a lot of things, motherhood being one of them. “ I made a choice this time — to be a mother. I wanted to be involved in the process of bringing my daughter up. Today she’s seven (Alisah Sen). I had to choose and prioritise, and I chose my babies. It’s not really about not wanting to do a film…it’s just the choice to wait to do the right one!”

However, there is some hope of watching her on the big screen. A comeback maybe in the works, after all. Sushmita reveals that she is actively working on finding the right movie. “I’m so hoping to be back on the screen but I need a fantastic director to offer me a fabulous script. I have been reading a lot of scripts but I don’t like them. I would rather be raising my babies and be present for them. But as I have promised that I’ll not bow down and say bye bye to the film industry till I give my audiences a film that they are proud of,” she signs off.