BENGALURU: She’s been a theatre actor, radio jockey, newsreader, copywriter, model coordinator, casting director, columnist and media consultant. And now, she’s an author. Dolly Thakore, who is in the city to promote her memoir Regret, None, opens up about everything she’s been through – the people she’s met, memories around certain events and the many issues she’s faced over the years “as a woman who has achieved it all”. And to everything that’s happened so far, Thakore just has one thing to say “I don’t regret anything at all”.
Thakore has written the book in collaboration with theatre director and filmmaker Arghya Lahiri. “He’s been a person I’ve known for a long time and someone I completely trust. He has even directed me in a play once. But for this book, it was my son, Quasar Thakore-Padamsee, who put us together for the book,” says Thakore, adding, “My life is an open book. I’ve been collecting articles and notes from my journey over the years. I gave Lahiri all the material and he edited a lot of it. And now we have the book.”
In her years of working in different fields, the hardest learning she has had to imbibe was “trying to get people to accept that women are as good as men, if not better”. “When I worked for All India Radio and then joined television, women were paid much less than men. Those were my first learnings. But I surpassed them all,” she says with a sense of pride.
Becoming an anchor was perhaps one of her favourite jobs, and even to this day, she has people coming up to her to appreciate her news reading. Over the course of her many activities, Thakore has made mistakes, but has always looked at them as learnings. “I played the role of Krishna when I was six years old. I remember the curtains went up and my saree came off. The curtains closed and all the backstage crew ran in to do damage control. When the curtains went up again, there was this huge applause from people and that stuck with me. I loved it. I didn’t care about what faux pas I made,” Thakore says, adding that since then, she has taken part in everything that “required attention from other people”. “Of course, I made mistakes but that didn’t stop me from taking up the challenge the next time,” she adds.
Her reason for writing the book wasn’t to reconnect with anyone. “I am friends with every single one of the people I’ve mentioned in the book. I am not embarrassed about anything I’ve written about in there,” says Thakore, who has included names like politician Indira Gandhi, actor Amitabh Bachchan, writer Farrukh Dhondy, filmmaker Richard Attenborough, dancer Protima Bedi and more.
With a positive and jovial attitude, Thakore continues to stride ahead at the age of 78. “As long as you have the courage to do it, my only advice to everyone is to enjoy every bit of your life. Live life the way you want to but with respect,” she says.