Urmila Matondkar, the star of 90s hit Hindi films like “Rangeela”, “Daud” and “Judaai”, is contesting the Lok Sabha election but says she isn’t approaching politics as a star and would rather be known as people’s representative.
“I am not approaching this whole thing as a star with my star image. I am trying to get to grassroot and connect to people. I know it is going to be difficult. I want to generate confidence in them about me as their representative more than just another star coming in, waving and asking for votes. Because that is not the thought with which I have gotten into it,” Urmila told PTI in an interview.
Considering she is a known face, ask her if Bollywood celebrities can be vote pullers, pat comes the reply, “I can’t talk about others, it is not fair. Media generally likes to generalise things as it makes their life easy.”
She will be contesting the election from Mumbai North constituency, a seat held by Govinda. Urmila, who has been campaigning and meeting the locals, says some of the major issues of the area are housing, water scarcity, sanitation.
“The most important issue is housing and it is too deep rooted for anyone to get a solution quickly. The slum redevelopment needs to be looked into. Water is another big issue, it is also a deep rooted so overnight solution is not possible. Women’s health, local trains. But we need do to things.
“This area is issue-ridden probably the most in Mumbai. People have been telling me about need for public toilets, water in Gorai area is another problem. Also (need for more) local trains as the population is more here and there is no infrastructure.”
She is fighting against BJP’s Gopal Shetty, a seasoned politician who has called Urmila naive and zero in politics.
But the actor isn’t affected.
“That shows his mentality in the whole thing. He started of saying that this is going to be a battle of vichardhara (ideology) but non-stop he is speaking derogatory things about me, which I have never done. I think there can be two things behind it – someone who is not very confident and all these things stem out of deep rooted fear that must have come in.”
According to Urmila, the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls is going to be a “very deciding election for the country”. (PTI)
