Sushmita Sen says she didn’t get roles in Bollywood due to reluctance to networking

Sushmita Sen took the jump from beauty pageant winner to actor rather smoothly. The actress proceeded to have a successful career in films, winning both critical acclaim and the audience’s love. In any case, after working in films for more than 10 years, she took a break for very nearly a decade. Post that, Sushmita decided to get back to acting with a web series and not films. Discussing it in a new interaction, the actress said it was because mainstream Bollywood wasn’t offering her the kind of roles she wanted.

In conversation with film critic Sucharita Tyagi for a video interaction on Critics Choice Short Film and Series Awards’ Facebook page, Sushmita said, “I think the 10-year hiatus set the priorities in order. It told me what I need to do and what not to do. Mainstream cinema wasn’t giving me what I wanted. A lot of it was a pre-conceived notion of my age and my screen age and that I hadn’t worked for ten years.”

The actor added that her own failure and reluctance to network with people meant she missed out open doors as well. She said, “I don’t know what the mindset was or maybe I was not putting myself out there. I have never been good at that. I am no good at networking. It did not work for me.”