Poonam Dhillon shares disappointment at absentee stars, says many "don't even attend" parliament

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 30 : Apart from being a talented actor, Poonam Dhillon has been actively involved in politics and believes that as a politician, "your intentions have to be correct". However, she expressed her disappointment that several actors don't even attend the parliament's sessions, and they have "never fought for our industry".

In conversation with ANI, she said, "They've been like umpteen number of actors, unfortunately, a lot of them don't even attend parliament."

Poonam, who is currently the president of the Cine and Television Artists Association (CINTAA), shared that many actors in parliament don't speak about the issues related to the industry.

"The problem today's artists are facing wasn't there 20 years ago. That time, people were given payment as per the contract, at the end of the day, and at the end of the month. Today a television actor especially gets payment after 90 days. 90 days is three months. And if I've done work today, and if my payment is given to me after 90 days, and I'm talking about small-term actors who earn a few thousand per day, and they get work two to three days a month. We are not talking about stars who are getting lakhs or crores of rupees. And we are not saying that for every actor. Not the big actors. They are fending. They have their legal support. They can go to court. But these actors don't even have a contract," she revealed.

However, Poonam shared that "many actors who have gone into the parliament have never fought for the cinema industry. Taking actors frivolously has happened because of them, which is sad, because just because you are an actor doesn't mean you are dumb or you don't have social intelligence or consciousness. Abhi Jaya ji (Jaya Bachchan), Arun Govil ji ne kuch bola hai. I mean, we had other actors like Shatrughan Sinha in those days who were very aware."

Poonam added, "I said many years ago, that actors have a short lifespan. At least in our time it was, itna bhi paisa nahi milta tha jo aaj mil raha hai. Except for the top 5-10. Everybody else has a short time span. Abhi khatam ho gaya career to over, how are you going to live for the rest of your life? You finish your career in four years, five years, seven years. And then you are expected to live till 70, 80, 90 years of life. You don't have that kind of money. So either give us some relief in some way. An actor may get certain facilities in terms of taxation."

The 'Sohni Mahiwal' actor asserted that she joined politics not to gain any power but for social welfare, "When I joined politics, it wasn't with the intention of being a politician. I used to do a lot of social work with a lot of NGOs. Being the kind of person I was, I was working with drug awareness schemes in those days. That time drugs were a big issue. Children should be aware of drugs in schools. Then I used to work for the National Association For The Blind. One of my very passionate subjects was organ donation. I used to feel that population is a big problem in India."

However, she felt that to resolve these issues, she needed to have political power or influence. "We need legislation. Anything needs legislation. Whether it's safeguarding or it's getting a facility, that's when my mind started that I need to join politics. And I had joined BJP in 2004.."

On the work front, Dhillon is best known for her 1979 film 'Noorie'. She also worked in 'Red Rose', 'Dard', 'Romance', 'Sohni Mahiwal', 'Teri Meherbaniyan', 'Samundar', 'Karma', 'Naam' and 'Maalamaal'. Poonam made a special appearance in 'Judaai'. She also made a mark on TV and was seen as a contestant on Season 3 of 'Bigg Boss' aired in 2009. The veteran actor played the lead role in the serial 'Ekk Nayi Pehchaan'.

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