Actress Rani Mukerji, was in Kolkata for the India Today Conclave East 2017 on 24 November.
During her session, Mukerji emphasised that the society needed to be more loving when she was asked about the unrest surrounding Sanjay Leela Bhansali's epic war-drama Padmavati.
"We need to be more loving as society, as humanity... We need to go towards love. We have to disassociate with something which is unloving. I believe in love because I am a new mother," Mukerji said when asked if she believed that a director must have cinematic liberty with historical or quasi-historical characters without facing protests.
Prodded to openly back Bhansali, Rani said the filmmaker knows she backs him.
"Bhansali doesn't need Rani Mukerji to back him on a platform like this. He knows that I back him, love him. He is my darling and Sanjay truly believes how much I love him and he knows how I stand by him. I don't need the platform to express that," added the actress, who worked with Bhansali in Black, which she said changed her "as a person and as a performer".
Mukherji, who is coming back to the big screen with Hichki after a long hiatus, says she doesn't ask her husband and filmmaker Aditya Chopra to cast her in films.
"I don't talk about work with Aditya. I don't tell him to cast me in films, I can only tell him when do we make our next baby. My conversation with Adi is all about love and Adira. I can't have a huge family as I think I have missed the bus. I should have started long time ago. But I can always try for a second child,"
Mukerji has appeared in films like Black, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, Mardaaniand No One Killed Jessica.
On the issue of nepotism, the daughter of late filmmaker Ram Mukerji, said, "I wouldn't say I had a soft landing. In the film industry, you get where you get because of your talent and merit. We have to sweat it out and work in all kinds of environment and wait for the audience to accept you or not accept you. You may be the brother, sister or daughter of a popular actor or director, and still not be accepted.
"When I got into films, my dad wasn't a very successful producer or director. Nepotism debate is baseless. People have come from non-filmy background and made it big in Bollywood."
On her next film Hichki, she said: "The two years' break I took for my baby, I told my director I might not do it. I am too domesticated. He said if we work around the timing. I asked him I don't know if I can act. When I went for the first day of the shoot for Hichki, I found it so easy. And (thought) I should never forget that this is who I am."
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