And how do you accomplish that? Urmila reflected for a while, said, “Actually I don’t know the process, it probably happens on a subconscious level, but the machine has to be ignited. Some actors borrow from life, some, from other films and some, from within themselves. To elaborate on this would be like touching a dewdrop and destroying it”. I had liked her description but then nothing about Urmila has ever ordinary. When she was a little girl, she tagged along with her Baba to watch theatre, which she says, she never understood but enjoyed the ambiance.
There is a possibility that the seeds were sown that early. Masoom was offered to her when she was in school and Narsimha when she was in college, one thing led to another and stardom happened. Her parents and books recommended by friends were the strongest influences of her early years. When she was riding high in her career, I asked her once if success alters equations within the family? She was surprised by the question, “I never experienced it. I’m treated the same way as I was as a child. Neither my friends nor my family has ever heaped praises on me and when outsiders do so, they look genuinely surprised”.
To be concluded