Four-year-old Pallavi Joshi was slapped on camera by director because she wasn't crying on cue: ‘My ego was hurt, didn't want to do films'

Indian Express

3 days ago

Actor Pallavi Joshi has been in the industry for over 52 years. She marked her acting debut with the 1973 film Naag Mere Sathi. She was just four. Even at that age, Pallavi was sure she didn't want to take up acting, however, competition with her brother Alankar Joshi made her say yes to director Shantilal Soni, who wanted to cast her as younger version of his female lead in the 1976 film Rakshabandhan starring actors Sachin Pilgaonkar and Sarika. In a recent interview, Pallavi Joshi shared how it was a task for the filmmaker to get her to cry in a scene. She revealed that the filmmaker got so annoyed with her that he ended up slapping her on camera.
In an interaction with Friday Talkies, Pallavi Joshi recalled the time she first faced camera. 'Back in those days, there used to be a director named Shantilal Joshi. He was my father's great friend. Sachin and Sarika were the lead actors in the film, and it was being made in two languages: Hindi and Gujarati. When I showed interest in acting, he quickly cast me in his film. I played the young version of Sarika.'
She added, 'They were shooting a song sequence where they expected me to cry. They narrated the scene to me. They said, 'You have to do a puja of Nag devta and then hold your face and cry.' The 4-year-old me found this very funny. They took several takes but I kept laughing. An annoyed Shantilal asked my father to slap me. My dad refused to do so but pretended to be annoyed at me. However, I knew he was acting. I laughed harder. After several takes, Shantilal walked up to me and slapped me hard.'
'The camera was rolling. This put me in shock. I was four. Nobody had slapped me before. My ego was hurt. 'Pure unit ke saamne mujhe kaise maar diya (How could he slap me before everyone?)'. I cried so hard. After the shot was done, I got up and yelled, 'I don't want to shoot for this film.' Even my father was shocked. He asked, 'How could you slap my daughter?'. Shantilal asked his unit to pack up. I was adamant that I will not shoot for the film. A couple of days passed and my dad got worried. In reality, Shantilal was waiting for me to calm down and when I did, we began to shoot again.'
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However, this was not the end of her tantrums. Being a four-year-old, she played the role of a child who was abused by her aunt and was expected to do household chores. She was given torn clothes to wear.
'During one of the scenes, I was asked to mop the floor. I was wearing torn clothes. Suddenly, I saw the girl who was playing my evil cousin was dressed up in beautiful new clothes and wearing glittery ornaments. Looking at her, I began to protest: 'Even I need to look like that'. It took them so long to convince me that my role didn't allow that. Eventually, my mom had to promise me to buy me all those things for my birthday and only then did I resume the shoot.'
Pallavi Joshi actively did films until 1999. However she took a decade-long break from the industry after her marriage to filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri in 1997. She made a comeback with the 2009 film Rita. Pallavi was recently seen in her husband's films The Kashmir Files, The Vaccine War and The Bengal Files. She also played an important role in Anupam Kher's film Tanvi the Great.