Asha Parekh is relieved that the lockdown has been extended in Mumbai.
"It isn't safe," the screen legend tells Subhash K Jha.
"It isn't even sane the way people were jostling one another on the streets, the cars were honking and crowding the roads, as if the virus was over. It was very frightening," Ashaji adds.
"It (the pandemic) isn't over," she warns. "Far from it. We need to follow the guidelines if we are to get over this."
Ashaji made it back to her home in Mumbai just before the lockdown.
"I was in New Zealand when the virus erupted. Everyone back home in Mumbai was panicking, 'Ghar aa jao, ghar aa jao.' I flew back on March 20 and the lockdown began on March 22," says the romantic star of Hindi cinema in the 1960s.
"I made it just in time. I shudder to think what life would have been like if I were stuck far away in a foreign country. Ghar to aakhir ghar hi hota hai," Ashaji, a Mumbaikar all her life, adds.
She spends her time listening to songs and watching movies. Does she watch her own movies?
"Not at all!" she exclaims. "I don't like seeing myself on screen. I find a hundred things wrong with my performance and looks. I am very self-critical."
Which of her films does she recommend to the audience?
"I find Bharosa, Do Badan, Kat Patang and Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki tolerable," she says.
She wonders when film shoots will resume.
"And how will they shoot romantic and action scenes?" she wonders. "Suddenly the world has changed, and so have the norms of living."
