Dial 100: Neena Gupta reveals she had reservations playing a negative character, says 'once you do it, you get bracketed'

Neena Gupta is the OG queen who's reigning our hearts. She has not just captivated the hearts of the theatre-going audience but is also just as popular with the OTT janta. Now, she is awaiting the release of her upcoming film, Dial 100. In this one, she plays a character who seeks revenge and is the antagonist to Manoj Bajpayee's character. Now, in a recent interview, she has opened up about the reservations she had playing a negative character and what made her give her nod to this film.

Talking to Mid Day, Neena Gupta said, “When the casting person called, I was told it’s a negative character who wants to take revenge. I told him point-blank that I didn’t want to do it. I don’t like doing negative roles because once you do it, you get bracketed. But my manager convinced me to hear the narration, explaining how the character’s arc develops. That’s when I realised it’s not an [all-black] role, but one that has many shades.”

She also added that director Rensil D'Silva helped her approach the role. She added, “When I was young, I didn’t get such roles. Usually, if a movie or series is a hit, you start getting similar parts. I wonder why Rensil and Siddharth P Malhotra [co-producer] thought of me for such a distinct role... How do you play such a role without the risk of going over-the-top? I had figured three ways of playing the character, but Rensil asked me to approach it in a totally different way. He gave me the rhythm of the character.”

Dial 100 also stars Sakshi Tanwar and is slated to release on Zee5.