Actor Sargun Mehta, who is a prominent name in film and television industry, recently credited producer Ekta Kapoor for paving the way for more women filmmakers to come up and back content. Sargun herself has a slew of projects lined up as a producer including TV show, ‘Badal Pe Paon Hai’.
"In TV, Ekta Kapoor cleared the way for everyone. She left no stone unturned to make sure that we didn’t have that hassle of being told, ‘How will you do it (produce a show)?’. She already did it so much that nobody could question (a woman producer),” Sargun told news agency PTI. She further mentioned how in Punjabi movies, people were not used to the idea of women producing, and underestimated her. “They didn’t think that I’ll pull it (films) off the way I did,” the actor said.
Sargun has produced several Punjabi films and TV shows like ‘Kala Shah Kala’, ‘Jhalle’, ‘Udaariyaan’, and ‘Junooniyat’, among others, but feels that acting is a far easier job than producing. “I realised now that production is a thankless job. As an artist when I come on set, I feel, ‘I’ve a lot of work to do’, but there are others like the unit (crew), the producer and creative team who have been working on it for months or years,” she said.
She further mentioned how she feels happy to have started her acting journey in the Punjabi movie industry. After making her debut in 2015 with Punjabi romantic-comedy, ‘Angrej’, she went on to star in several films, including ‘Lahoriye’, ‘Qismat’, ‘Moh’, and ‘Jatt Nuu Chudail Takri’. Sargun reiterated, “At the time, the Punjabi movie industry wasn’t doing that great. Everybody asked me, ‘Why are you doing it? I would be like, 'I love it and it's all good'. The industry has taken leaps and bounds in terms of growth.”
She further revealed how the Punjabi film industry is now making 60 films a year, and crossing Rs 100 crore at the box office. “Everybody is hungry to do more and they are experimenting a lot,” she said.
As for Bollywood, the actress, who had acted alongside Akshay Kumar in the 2022 film ‘Cuttputlli’, said that joining Bollywood a decade ago seemed like a far-fetched idea. “There weren't so many famous casting directors, and those who were there knew who we were. The opportunities are now in millions because of OTT. You meet casting directors, people are on Instagram,” she added.
Her production ‘Badal Pe Paon Hai’ is set to air on Sony SAB channel on June 10.
