Neena Gupta Recalls When She Lost A Role To "Good Friend" Sunita Rajwar: "There's A Bit Of Jealousy"

Neena Gupta is currently basking in the success of Panchayat 3. She plays the role of Manju Devi Dubey, the Pradhan of Phulera, in the Prime Video show. The series also features her close friend, actress Sunita Rajwar as Kranti Devi. Recently, Neena Gupta opened up about losing a role to Sunita Rajwar and feeling jealous about it. In a conversation with India Today, Neena recalled how a filmmaker approached both of them for the same role. She said, “I kept wondering why would she reach out to both of us if she didn’t want to cast me. Sunita and I are very good friends but we look so different from each other, so how can one approach both of us for the same role? There are no similarities.”

“There is a bit of jealousy. I feel jealous when my friends or contemporaries bag apart and I don’t, but I also take it in a good spirit,” Neena Gupta added.

Panchayat 3 features Jitendra Kumar in the lead role. The series revolves around the story of an engineering graduate who becomes a panchayat secretary because of limited job opportunities. 

Talking about her role in the Panchayat 3, Neena Gupta told news agency PTI, “Characters are often inspired by real-life. There are still many women like Manju devi everywhere around us. She is very satisfied with her household things; she has no ambition. Pradhan is working on her behalf, people liked it and that’s how women in India do it in rural or urban places. So, women relate to me, to Manju devi.”

The actress also opened up about how catching the right dialect was a challenge. She mentioned, “The dialect is different so when you play the character after a while, it takes time to get into the character. In fact, on the last day of the shoot, the dialogues came easily to me. I insist that we must shoot the next season soon. However, you’ve to work on the character,” she said. 

Directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra, Panchayat 3 was released on May 28.