Urmila Matondkar says her acting was dismissed as sex appeal: ‘Girls with nothing woman-like were considered actors’

Urmila Matondkar said that she did not get any credit for her performance in Rangeela back in the day. She revealed that it was only considered sex appeal and ‘nothing to do with acting’.

Urmila Matondkar said that she was not given credit as an actor for Rangeela and her performance was dismissed as ‘sex appeal’. She played an aspiring actor in the film, which also stars Aamir Khan and Jackie Shroff.

Urmila Matondkar in a still from Rangeela.

In an interview, Urmila said that even looking sexy requires acting and questioned if only intense emotional scenes were considered acting. She also talked about how critics wrote nasty things about her even after the success of Rangeela.

Speaking to The Times of India, Urmila said, “Post Rangeela, people said that everything I did was about sex appeal and nothing to do with acting. How can the song, Hai Rama, happen without a person being a performer? Is doing a tear-jerking scene only acting? Appearing sexy also demands acting. I was not playing Miss Nothing in the film. My character of the girl-next-door transforms through each song of the film, which the critics didn’t understand.”

Urmila said that despite the success of Rangeela not a single ‘decent word’ was written about her and ‘everything was given credit’, from her clothes to her hair, but not her performance. “Girls who gave 13 flops, girls who were said to look like ‘boys’ with nothing woman-like about them, girls who did double meaning songs with heroes… were considered actors. But for me, being in front of the camera was a spiritual experience. To have Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar sing for me was by itself a victory. I didn’t need awards,” she said.

Urmila started her career as a child actor in films such as Karm and Masoom. Later, she starred in films such as Judaai, Satya, Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya, Bhoot and Ek Hasina Thi. She was last seen on the big screen in a special song, Bewafa Beauty, in Irrfan Khan and Kirti Kulhari-starrer Blackmail.