Interview : ‘Ameena’ actor Rekha Rana says, “I won’t do a film even with Shahrukh Khan, now”!

Actress #RekhaRana was active in the entertainment industry but now she has shifted base to #Hollywood, #LosAngeles, #USA. No, she is not doing Hollywood projects but runs a technical company. Rekha Rana was part of films like ‘#TaraTheJourneyofLovePassion’, ‘#AbHogaDharnaUnlimited’ and Tamil films like ‘Tamil man’ and ‘Cinema star’. Now her new film ‘Ameena’ is slated for release. Our Sr Editor Keerti Kadam interacted with Rekha Rana. Excerpts.

Were you always interested in acting?

I was interested in acting from my childhood itself. I was very good at giving expressions. Whenever I used to watch a song, I used to dance on it. Whenever my family friends used to come they would tell me to do a particular scene or dance (Laughs). So I was a very expressive person and whenever I performed everyone would enjoy my performance.

Since your name is Rekha, do you like to watch Rekha’s (Bhanurekha Gemini Ganesan) movies ?

Well not exactly (laughs) . But there’s this song I am not sure if it’s hers. It’s called ‘Mukhda Chand ka Tukda’. So I used to perform on that song with expressions.

Have you received any formal training in acting?

Yes. I am a student of Barry John and I have also done an acting course from New York Film Academy. Currently I am living in the USA.

Don’t you miss the Bollywood or Hindi film industry?

I have got a lot of love and respect from Bollywood. Today whatever I am, it’s all because of Bollywood. I am able to live in LA and work there and establish myself. Bollywood has made it possible for me to work in such a big country. It has given me my creativity and films so I have got a lot of love from Bollywood and I have no complaints.

When you did your first film, how did you feel while facing the camera? Were you afraid or nervous?

Not really. Because I am a theatre actor so I was pretty sure that I will be able to act in front the camera so I was not that nervous. But I got to learn about a lot of things like frames, lighting, various shots etc. Also in theatre acting your expressions are supposed to be quite dramatic but on camera they should be subtle. So what I learned was that the less you give the more it comes out.

Tell us about your character in ‘Ameena’?

‘Yaha Ameena Bikti Hai’ is a play and I am playing the role of Ameena from it. So this play is written by a famous Urdu writer Aftab Hasnain and the director of the play was Harvansh Singh. Kumar Raj ji got to know about the script of the play and he really liked it. He said that he wanted to make a movie out of it. So he had meetings and bought the script and that’s how he started making the movie.

Were there any changes made in the script?

Well a lot of things were changed as it’s a play. But Kumar Raj ji kept the play as it is and added a story around it. In the movie there are two parallel tracks going on. I am playing the role of Meena who is a theatre actress and she is playing the role of Ameena in that play. So in the movie, the story moves back and forth. Meena goes to the theatre everyday to play the role of Ameena and I come back again to my daily life as Meena. So in both of this track there’s a story of Meena who is a modern day girl and Ameena is a character in the play which is set around 40 years back. So both of these girls find themselves in a difficult situation and Ameena commits suicide and Meena is totally opposite. So it shows how different girls were 40 years ago and now.

You are doing a film after a long time and in between you used to run a NGO too. So can you tell us more about it?

Currently I am inactive in all those things. My present life is more on a spiritual side. I have isolated myself from the NGO work and Bollywood. I live in LA now and I have a beautiful spiritual life. Now I am one of the Jehovah’s witnesses. Jehovah is the name of a creator mentioned in Bible for more than 7000 times. So we are called Jehovah’s witnesses and we go door to door and spread peace and love now.

…so how did this change took place?

Good question. So when covid came in everything was blocked. But during that time I was searching for the true knowledge and creator of the world. I have been doing that since I was 6 years old. I had this spiritual hunger inside me and during lockdown I started reading bible. So I got a call from a Yehovah witness. In Hindi Jehovah is called ‘Yehovah ka sakshi’. So this person helped me while reading the bible and I got to know about various things and now I am one of the Jehovah’s witnesses. There’s one thing that I have learned and would like to share it with everyone. Sometimes we worship and pray to God out of fear but there’s this scripture in the Bible that says , “Whoever does not love, does not know God because God is love”. So literally God has been compared with love because we commit a lot of wrong things but God still shows his love for us. We shouldn’t worship God out of fear but to show our love for him. So now I am busy with my spiritual life now. I have some goals that I want to fulfil. So I am happy with how my life is right now. I have also realized that true joy doesn’t come from fame, name ,family or anything. The true joy comes from worshiping God and nothing else.

If you get suppose really good films from Bollywood. What will you do in that situation?

I will say no to that work. Because I know the value of what I have now and how big it is. Before coming here even I had this question in my heart that if the movie is a hit and I get a call from Red chillies to do a film with Shah Rukh Khan even then I won’t do it. This requires a lot of faith in God. Because there’s either worldly success or spiritual success and I am focused on spiritual success. If I should do a film it should fit God’s standard. There’s a film I am committed to right now . It’s called ‘We the Silk Worm’ but I can’t say anything about it because I might end up saying no to it.

What kind of preparation you did?

I didn’t take any training. The only training I did was for Ameena’s play which was for 6 months. That’s all. So for the movie, we had this scene where I had to walk with Lions and they were even bigger than me. The shoot was in Africa and when I went there I saw all these Lions from a distance and I was unsure if I would be able to shoot or not but still I ended up doing the scene. The shoots took place in various countries like LA, New York, Africa, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Paris, India and many other places like Mumbai.