Sushmita Sen had never done even theatre when she made her debut with Mahesh Bhatt’s 1996 film Dastak, after winning the Miss Universe pageant in 1994. The actor played a beauty queen in the film, a role she was offered by Mahesh Bhatt, despite her telling him that she doesn’t know how to act. She has now opened up about how Mahesh ‘broke her ambition’ in front of several people by slamming her acting skills.
In Dastak, Sushmita was in the role of a Miss Universe who became the victim of a stalker, played by Sharad Kapoor. Mukul Dev starred as the lead actor in the film.
Talking about the incident which made her very angry after Mahesh Bhatt insulted her, Sushmita told Twinkle Khanna in an interview, “He is a fabulous director, I will give him that because he broke an ambition in front of 40 media people and 20 production guys, publicly attacking me. I started crying, ‘I told you I can’t act, why you called me for this, I don’t know how to act.’ He’s like, ‘kya leke aaye ho (what have you brought to me), playing Miss Universe like this on camera. She can’t act to save her life.'”
“I got very angry and started walking off the set. He tried to hold my hand and I just snapped it and told him, ‘No, you don’t talk to me like that.’ I was walking away and he grabbed it again and said, ‘That’s anger! Go back and give it.’ And I did,” she added. The actor went on to give the shot where she throws away her earrings and other jewellery in anger. She also praised Mahesh for his skills as a director but bonded with Twinkle over how directors in the 90s would regularly get angry at female actors.
Sushmita has come a long way in her film career. She went on to feature in several films, including Biwi No 1, Fiza, Aankhen, Main Hoon Na and Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya? She disappeared from the film scene after 2010 and made an impressive comeback in 2020 with the web series, Aarya, in which she plays the central role. She returned with the second season of the show in 2021.