A look at Manisha Koirala's 51st birthday and her life

Today is Manisha Koirala's birthday. Manisha has turned 51 years old. Let's see what is special about Manisha's life on her birthday.Manisha Koirala looks back on her films, relationships and making a career out of a stop-gap  arrangement.    Manisha Koirala was only 17 when she caught her first break in acting, a Nepali film. The job offered her Rs 50,000, a grand sum for a teenager in 1990. With the 20-day shoot to be held in the neighbouring town, Pokhran, her Kathmandu-based family gave the go-ahead without much a do.

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 “I never felt I’d get so hooked [to acting] that it will become something that I’ll end up wanting to do till my last breath,” says Koirala, who turns 50 today, marking her three decades in films. “Even when I made my Bollywood debut in Subhash Ghai’s Saudagar [1991], I felt I’ll do a film or two, and then move abroad and settle,” she says, over the phone from Kathmandu, where she’s presently staying put with her family.  Koirala’s filmography, which is one short of 90, includes superhits such as Bombay (1995), Agni Sakshi (1996), Akele Hum akele tum 1995), 1942 A Love Story (1994) and Dil Se (1998). But nudge her to look back on her career, and she ruefully reflects upon her “volatile” profession as one “where one’s sorrows, joys and anguish are shared with everyone”. “It’s been erratic,” she says. “I’ve had the great highs and crushing lows, so it has been dramatic.”

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 Hits and misses aside, Koirala suffered a major setback in 2012 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. And while she has been cancer free since 2014, she remembers being extremely nervous when Dibakar Banerjee offered her a part in Lust Stories (2018), her first performance following her recovery.

“I had apprehensions about whether I still knew how to act and if people would like and accept me again,” says the actress, who went ahead with the film, despite having reservations about the subject material. “It had some intimate scenes. The story also featured an extramarital affair and I wasn’t sure about it.” The critical response the film garnered was reassuring but the life-altering experience of grappling with a terminal condition led to many epiphanies too. “A lot of illusions fade away and you see the reality of life as it is when faced with death,” she says. “You realise that you shouldn’t expect those who share a good laugh with you, to stand by you during your bad time, unless you want to be disappointed.”

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But to be able to function and be relevatnt at 50 is something Koirala is grateful for. “I have seen documentaries, where actresses who reach their 40s and 50s say that work slowly diminishes after a certain age. While that’s the truth, if you work at it, and have the craft, nothing can stop you,” says the actress, who acknowledges that the rise of OTT platforms that have opened doors for actors of a certain vintage. “One doesn’t just have to be young, college-going and dancing around trees anymore. It was fun when I was that age and did it. But now, I get to play my age and sometimes, even older and I don’t mind. As long as there’s material for me and the director brings out my best, it’s great,” she says.

Koirala takes an optimistic view about the offers she’s received in recent years, which include playing Nargis Dutt in the Sanjay Dutt biopic, Sanju (2018). “When I started out, to get work for an actress at 50 was unheard of. Even the best actresses would last [in the business] for 10 years at the max,” she says. “But today, people appreciate your grey hair and respect that you’re accepting your age. Back then, you couldn’t afford to have a single wrinkle.”

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Hailing from a prominent political family in Nepal, Koirala recalls how her family was initially sceptical of her delving into the “big, bad world of Bollywood”. But a few years in, they came around. “The reputation of the industry wasn’t that great at the time. But over the years, a lot of people from good families began joining films, and it became a respectable profession to be in,” she says, adding, “It hurts me now, when people say horrible things about the industry. There’s a lot of hard work and struggle, but a lot of dreams come true too.”

Entering mainstream, Koirala admits, was not easy at first. “When I got cast in Saudagar, I was clueless. Subhashji put Vivek (Mushran, co-star) and me through various classes for kathak, diction, horseriding, driving and acting. I didn’t even know how to dress up or do make-up… I was taught everything from scratch.” From her initial days to plunging into the deep end soon after, Koirala remembers pulling 20-hour-shifts in her prime, a norm for many popular actors in the 1990s. “When one is young and has that extra energy, you work till you drop. That pulled me through a lot of hard work.”

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Koirala credits her career’s trajectory to chance. In fact, according to her, she was hardly aware of Mani Rathnam’s legacy when he offered her a part in Bombay, and only agreed to it on cinematographer Ashok Mehta’s insistance. “I’ve been extremely blessed to have people around to guide me. Bombay helped me get recognised as a good actor,” says the actress, who is quick to admit how she struggles to watch some of her older films. “When I see myself wearing the frills and loud make-up, it makes me cringe. Even the extremes that we would go to show a character cry, it was just too much melodrama,” she says with a laugh.

On the personal front, Koirala, who has over the years been linked with co-stars, business tycoons, among others, says that every relationship she’s been in has been a learning experience, even though some have caused her much hurt. “Early on, relationships mattered to me a great deal, and I would give them my 100 per cent. I was often alone in Mumbai and there was a constant pressure of work. While I’ve always had a great circle of friends, there were many times when a sense of loneliness would creep in. Perhaps the need for relationships was a lot more back then,” says the actress.

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 Koirala tells us that she is presently in a “satisfying relationship” with herself. “Whatever I am today and whatever I’ve gone through, it’s all part of it,” she says. “I trusted people I shouldn’t have and regret the pain I suffered, but that’s also a part of growing up and maturing.”