My life has been full of highs and lows as I made my journey from South Indian films to Hindi cinema and subsequently into politics. But looking back, I feel that an incident in my childhood proved to be a major turning point. I was about eight and studying in Rajahmundry when this incident happened.

I was gathering funds for victims of the Godavari floods when one day a man snatched all the money and made off with it. We never found the thief and I remember that I couldn’t stop crying. When my father heard about this, he gave me more money than I had lost and also valuable words of advice — that one has to fight hard in life to reach one’s goals and that this was a small step in that direction. I never forgot his words but understood the meaning much later.

Another incident that left an indelible impression on my mind was meeting the great Satyajit Ray at a film festival in Delhi. This was a little after I made my Bollywood debut in N.N. Sippy’s superhit film, Sargam (1979). Ray appeared to take a liking to me and said: “She is the most beautiful Indian actress of our times”. It was a huge boost to my confidence.

I remember that in those days I had long hair and sported a big red bindi. My husband probably realised that I was beautiful only after that comment from Ray! I had really looked forward to working with Ray — but that dream remained unfulfilled.

Last year, I acted opposite Kamal Haasan in the Tamil movie Dasavatharam last year. The film was a hit and I realised that audiences still loved me.

Now I’m looking forward to the release of the Hindi movie Desire next month. I play the role of an Odissi dancer while Shilpa Shetty plays my daughter.

(As told to Nandini Guha)