It wasn’t the usual Mandira Bedi sporting revealing dresses. This time, she was covered from top to bottom in a pair of denims and a jacket. Before coming to Delhi to perform in the play Salt N Pepper presented by Ballantine, she had a fair idea about the Delhi weather and thus she came prepared. “I know I don’t look the usual self but what to do I’ve to think about health as well,” she says, as she starts talking about her theatre stint.
She never planned to do theatre, it just happened when a friend offered her a role in a play. But she came into limelight in the theatre world with Not Just Love by Vikranth Pawar, also the director of Salt N Pepper.
“We have done more than 150 shows of the play all across India and it’s still doing good,” she says. And now, the new play, Salt N Pepper, for which she was here, is keeping her on her toes. The play tells 10 stories of 10 different relationships in 10 different set-ups. Mandira is a part of the five stories along with co-actor Darshan Zariwala. The most exciting part of this play, she says, is that she gets to play a 25-year-old and a 50-year-old within a span of minutes. “It’s exciting to time travel,” she says, as she talks about her favourite story in the play, Giant Wheel where she plays a 55-year-old woman.
“I really enjoyed portraying an old woman who is scared of giant wheels. She comes to take a ride on one every year on her birthday to shoo away the fear in her heart. But this time, because of a technical glitch, she gets stuck on the wheel with a guy who is a complete stranger. The story is about the bond that the two strangers create. It’s beautiful,” she says.
And when we talk about relationships, she is quick to mention her real life too. She says, after the birth of her son Vir, life has drastically changed, but for good. “My husband Raj was ready to become a father within three years of our marriage. But I kept delaying it. Now I realise what I was missing in life. Motherhood is a beautiful feeling,” she says.
Does she regret not having planned a baby early in her life and she says, “No, I never regret my decisions. I see good in everything. Now I’m able to give my entire self to my baby. I have seen young girls cribbing about managing everything from home, career to the baby. Now that I’ve worked for more than 16 years, I’m satisfied on the career front and can give my 100 per cent to Vir.”
In fact, she loves being a mom so much that she doesn’t leave Vir even for a day. “Just one year four months old, Vir has already taken more than 150 flights. I take him with me wherever I go,” she says.