Pallavi Joshi recalls being slapped by director on set when she was 4 years old: ‘My father was also shocked'

Hindustan Times

a day ago

Actor Pallavi Joshi began her journey in the film industry as a child artiste and later went on to become a multiple National Award-winning actor. In a recent interview with Friday Talkies, Pallavi shared a startling anecdote from her debut film, revealing how she was slapped by the director on set to make her cry. Pallavi Joshi talks about the boycott Bollywood trend.
When Pallavi Joshi was slapped by a director
Pallavi recalled that filmmaker Shantilal Joshi, a friend of her father's, cast her in the 1973 film Naag Mere Saathi after she showed an interest in acting. She revealed that Sachin and Sarika played the lead roles in the film, while she portrayed the younger version of Sarika.
She recounted how, during a song sequence in which she was expected to cry, she instead kept bursting into laughter.
'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 four-year-old me found this very funny. They took several takes, but I kept laughing. Shantilal then asked my father to slap me. My dad refused but pretended to be angry at me from behind the camera. I sensed he was just acting—and laughed even harder. After several failed takes, Shantilal lost his cool, walked up to me and slapped me," she explained.
Pallavi continued, 'The camera was rolling. I was in shock. I was only four. No one had ever slapped me before. My ego was hurt. 'Pure unit ke saamne mujhe kaise maar diya?' (How could he slap me in front of the whole unit?) I cried uncontrollably. After the shot, I stood up and screamed, 'I don't want to shoot for this film!' My father was shocked and asked, 'How could you slap my daughter?' Shantilal called for a pack-up. I was adamant, I would not shoot again.'
She added that a few days passed while her father grew anxious because the filmmaker hadn't called them back on set. However, in reality, Shantilal was waiting for her to calm down and once she did, they resumed shooting.
About Pallavi Joshi
Pallavi made her acting debut at the age of four with a minor role in the Hindi film Naag Mere Saathi (1973). As a child actor, she appeared in Aadmi Sadak Ka, Badla, and received acclaim for portraying a blind child in Dada. In the early 1990s, she featured in art films like Rukmavati Ki Haveli, Trishagni, Rihaee, and also acted in commercial films including Saudagar, Panaah, Mujrim, and Tehelka.
She won her first National Award for her role in Woh Chokri (1992), receiving the Special Jury Award in the Feature Film category. After playing Kasturba Gandhi in The Making of the Mahatma, Pallavi took a break from cinema and made her return with Renuka Shahane's Rita in 2009.
She was last seen in Tanvi The Great, which also starred Anupam Kher, Shubhangi Dutt, Iain Glen, Boman Irani, and Jackie Shroff. Pallavi will next be seen in The Bengal Files, directed by her husband Vivek Agnihotri. The film, which is part of Vivek's Files trilogy (The Tashkent Files, The Kashmir Files), stars Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Anupam Kher, and Darshan Kumar, and is set to release on 5 September.