Mumbai: Former Bollywood actress Mamta Kulkarni, who renounced the glamour world to become a sadhvi, recently revealed that Aamir Khan used to change in her bedroom during shooting as vanity vans and elaborate infrastructure were rare in the 1990s.
Mamta’s revelation comes at a time when Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman triggered a debate by stating that he is not getting much work in Bollywood of late, apparently due to power shift and communal bias in the industry.
Reacting to Rahman’s communal remarks, Mamta recalled the warmth and unity she shared with Muslim actors Aamir and Shah Rukh Khan.
“Look, I feel extremely fortunate that I worked in the 1990s. I worked with Aamir Khan, I worked with Shah Rukh Khan… we never looked at each other’s r
eligion. Honestly, what should I even say now?” Mamta, who considers herself fortunate to have worked during that period, told IANS.
“When we went on a world tour with Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, we would sit in each other’s homes, someone would be making tea, someone else would be cooking,” she shared.
Last year, Mamta was appointed as the Mahamandaleshwar of the Kinnar Akhara, adopting the name Shri Shri Yamai Mamta Nand Giri.
Talking about Rahman’s communal remarks, Mamta said, “When you ask about AR Rahman, everything has its time. Maybe your kind of music is no longer relevant. Today, so many very good singers are sitting at home without work.”
During an interaction with BBC Asian Network, Rahman said, “People who are not creative have the power now to decide things, and this might have been a communal thing also, but not in my face. It comes to me as Chinese whispers that they booked you, but the music company went ahead and hired their five composers. I said, ‘Oh, that’s great, rest for me, I can chill out with my family’.”
After facing backlash, Rahman issued an apology, clarifying that he did not intend to hurt anyone.