Roja Actor Madhoo Reveals "Typecasting In Cinema" Led To Her Taking A Long Sabbatical

Madhoo Shah is known for her unforgettable role in Mani Ratnam’s Roja (1992). Shah, who is married to a businessman and is the mother of two daughters, revealed in a recent interview that she took a long sabbatical from the cinema after witnessing sexism and typecasting.

Shah said that at one point, towards the end of her career in the 1990s, she felt that she was not getting the kind of roles that she was looking for. She lauded actors such as Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, etc. for "completely transforming the status of female actors in the industry."

Madhoo On Typecasting In Films

"I was playing the heroine role, so all the heroines at that time were typecast. We had some amazing songs to dance and sing to, and then we had a few romantic scenes, but I got lucky to do a few films like Yeshwant and Pechaan, and even in my first film, Phool Aur Kaante," Shah told Pinkvilla in an interview. "I played varied kinds of roles in different languages and have no complaints about the roles that came my way, but yes, at one point towards the end of my career, I decided to exit, and that's when I started to feel I wanted to do more but I was not getting that kind of roles," added the actor.

Shah also said that she wanted to do more films like Roja but that they did not come her way. "I was part of an era where action and action heroes were given the whole movie. Having done films like Yodha and Roja in the south, I wanted more like these movies to come my way here too, but they did not, and I found my life partner, so I decided to exit and have no regrets about that."

On the work front, Shah will next be seen in Samantha Ruth Prabhu's Shaakuntalam, which is scheduled to release on April 14. Shah is also roped into two Malayalam OTT projects, making her OTT debut.

Suggested Reading: From Roja To Thalaivi, Here’s Looking At Actor Madhoo’s Body Of Work