Smriti Irani: Power, Politics, Childhood, Ahmedabad Crash & PM Modi | FO386 Raj Shamani

0:00When you are a person, do you feel a need to prove yourself in the world? In our society, people are watching the people and watching the people. Because we become bigger than the ability to understand. Father, husband, they can't break. In my house, the husband is also going to break. Tell me, I'll call it. I'll make it. Do you think that if you are a powerful woman, there are more criticism. If you are a powerful woman, you are a problem. The one who doesn't get offline, doesn't have online opinion. Smriti Irani After a successful career as a TV actress She became a Minister of Education Today we will know what cost of a powerful woman is going to be a cost How does she deal with the loss of the election?

0:45And how does she get a motivating factor from a humble background? What is it like to be the inner circle of top leadership in the country? There is no inner circle Modi is the circle That's it I saw some clip where you got a little angry. There's a speech of mine that goes viral of shouting at Sonia Gandhi. Apologize to the nation. Mavi Manga is dead. Mavi Manga, Sonia Gandhi, why are you? My father had a stroke. I know what I've lived in that one hour, 15 minutes. When you lost election, you felt nothing. Because I've lost elections before. I was smiling and I was saying, What was good. Think, if I win the election 2004, then...

1:29Is it fun acting? I asked a lawyer, why are you doing it? My mercy. I said, why would you make an actor? Why would you make an actor? Tell me your weakness. What hurts more? As an actor, when somebody underestimates you, it hurts more than as a politician when you get hate more. um

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2:12What hurts more being as an actor when somebody underestimates you, that hurts as a politician when you get hate more. No, nothing. Nothing hurts me. It's a good thing when people underestimate you. They don't see you coming. If you still have that, it's a good thing. You should use any negativity that normally people do not know how to deal with as an instrument towards success. But sometimes... You cannot get so bogged down. because the world you are probably in the world I always thought that in politics you say dynasty in media you say Nippo babies or I get into the chakraviyu or victim or I get into the analysis and I get better as a functioning professional I was very clear that I was not in media nor in politics I will rely on this on how I made the network.

3:19This was me when I was 24-25. When I'm 49, I realized the potential of networks. But networks also get with you 2-3 burdens or disadvantages. So you should be analytical in every thing. And you can't do analysis when you're emotionally ingrained in something. So explain network and explain advantages of network. I was also a professor of the family. So when I went to Berkeley, I studied it digitally. And when I was studying it, I was in the cabinet. So Yaniv was very strange to be a cabinet minister, I was studying FinTech. And I didn't have any field of FinTech. No. When I got face to face, I exchanged notes for Yaniv.

4:39it does not matter what your language is. It does not matter what your geography is. Sometimes coming from simple backgrounds in itself is a chip on the shoulder which is agnostic to your culture. That we have to go on the ground, trenches, we have to go on. So I thought this was when we were exchanging notes about the power of networks. So what does an Ivy League school or international think tank give you? What does it give you? Relationships build a foundation. So I think that is what networks get you. Access to places. Access to information. And new information. Now some people commercialize it.

5:24I don't have any commercial value for it. Just the whole journey of knowing in itself is brilliant. because we have our whole life now we have a great father and said that it should be a good job it should be scared he doesn't want to do what he has to do he has to do no parent mostly parent you don't want to do this because they are coming from you or are not he says he says I have to do this you have studied because they have studied that you have studied in a good school in a good college that means 50 % guarantee of success true right your whole life is under the pension and when the pension becomes a real then you think what would happen I didn't do that I knew that paycheck is important.

6:32I am not be-wakoof. I knew that pension is important. I have been able to fix it. But in that life, I didn't need regret it. But you mentioned, three-four times you mentioned that chip on the shoulder. Do you think when you have a family and your ambitions are bigger and you don't have to pay paycheck to pension, these are all thoughts. do you feel a need constant to prove yourself in the world that's a chip on the shoulder that I can prove myself when the world is not the same thing you are giving yourself so you felt the need to prove yourself didn't feel the need to prove myself I think what takes a lot of people aback is the tenacity how dare you that is the other thing the rich teach their kids which middle class, lower middle class doesn't teach how do we no, which we are listening to today Raj, your father has always taught you you are always loyal to your work you are always loyal to your work you are always loyal to your work

8:21Be可愛 == we all see in office there is someone like a chakram who is less competent who is not so intelligent who is not so intelligent who will go to 10 people who are actually working hear everything that they are doing go to the boss before the hard worker gets to the boss you know what I think this should happen you are doing it that I have I think the middle class never teaches. That is the one burden most middle class people are bogged down with. How to serve the master? Yes. Because we were supposed to, we were taught to be humble, loyal, hardworking. And the chakram is, that's what you taught us.

9:12How to leverage, how to be flashy. We taught you to be flashy. Stay in the middle. right? Just sit. Today we say it. Today we say it. It's a chip on the shoulder. But sometimes it's a chip on the shoulder that the world is less than I can tell. No. Never. Never. Never. Because you've been living in trenches, you don't want to be that who makes others. Who makes others show off. Not that. but because everyone is doubting maybe the world is going on we are or not there is no difference in the world this is the first time of your question that today we will understand so if we are going to be forgotten why waste time the only difference is I have lived my life predominantly in front of the camera for 20 years 20-25 years so I am seen but even if there is no light on and there is no camera facing me I am just the same has it ever happened that there is more powerful you know in your head we all know who is more powerful who is more money no one is powerful this is the biggest I think I have seen everything this power is a state of mind it is not an individual it is not a position it is a state of mind and if you realize that then you can leverage it how do you define power?

10:57tell me I don't know I have a question and then I'll define how do you enter a room where you know inherently that intelligence wise position wise payse wise multiple other factors which are vanity metrics in the world why is the other person most superior position on you right then how do you not succumb to that power and be like why do you have to succumb to anything like that you are young no why never never never never never never never never never never never never that is what I'm saying power is a state of mind if you presume somebody has more money than you then look at exact the context that you've set up in a different fashion why are you in the room that person with money that person with power why do they want you in the same room the fact that you understand that aspect means who has power you know I don't let anyone be more powerful in this room I feel very friendly with somebody whoever it is because it's that maybe I've trained myself in that it's the chip in the shoulder it's the chip in the shoulder no, here too if you're doing this you're watching your chip on the shoulder but here I won't let anyone be power position the fact that you're saying I won't let anyone be is power how do you get off this you don't you have to live your life to your comfort and to your truth what may be true for me what may be my way of life may not be yours true why do you seek conformity if you stop seeking conformity you will stop next step is stop seeking validation wow mentoring session with it's me and you I am on the other end of podcast I love it but it's true why I don't know it's that indoor boy comes out no but that's okay that's what keeps you relevant to yourself it makes you watch over your shoulder always so anytime people tell me see humara again I'm just presuming foundationally you and I may have certain you know foundational pieces of our life which may be similar, Uttar Bharat sayin, samanye paribaro sayin, how are we taught how to deal with life?

13:22We are never taught. If we have a conversation of a style of conversation, what happens? We get two things that say, we pick up the threads later, we call these people friends. okay when we do this we do this we do this we do this we do this we do this now you do this and you do this in the workplace you become a and suddenly you become a where you think my transparency my body is made for me because you haven't taught it you have said satyam vad dharma char I mean, say truth, go to the religion. And because you haven't learned anything, you also meet those people who have taught this craft. They have told you, you wear a dress like this, you meet with them, you take a car like this, if you meet with someone with someone with someone, you also have to behave like this.

14:27Because they are watching that example from their own parents, their own family ecosystem. What have we seen as our parents? what has happened to you? It's hard. I've never learned a story. I don't know. It's not a story. I've never learned a story. It's their way of life. That's why when you confront people that are like, we're talking about a story. What are you saying? Because they have life a person who has lived. Yes, they have lived. Like here, there's a lot of controversy like dynasty, Nepo, that is their way of life if you have a Ngathose do you think that줘 takes to get his kitaiquer and it makes stop because that's what you don't accept and you can stop the hand because that's the thing that you don't accept you don't accept, whether you're so famous or so, it's your life 100 % and you think that I'm sitting on Bill Gates but I'm sitting here today, I'm like this and those people psychologically you can leverage that feeling and if you are in that mind-bought, you are waiting for their validation and you are waiting for their new strategies and new work, you are not your advice.

16:06Now, a lawyer asked me, why are you saying something? My purpose. She said, excuse me. I said, yes. I said, why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? I said, why do you make a mantra? Why do you make a mantra? Now you say, Shrithi Rani, why do you make a mantra? I'm like, toss the coin and tell me. What do you want to ask? I'm like, I'm going to study my own. And some people, from this matter, you are a big man. And, what do I say? Do you think, as a woman, if you're a powerful woman, criticism is more than that? That is. If you are a move-hurt, then it will be a problem. Move-hurt is, or women in power?

16:48What does it mean? power what is the meaning of it it's a little thumb and put it suddenly power I remember there's something called the IPU International Parliamentary Union in Uganda meeting in 2012 and 2013 I was a speaker from opposition to my young parliamentarian and I was in his team and I was one meeting which was networking tea so all the politicians were in the parliament there were some defence some of them all the people are having the same conversation how they have to be doubly alert so that they are not looked upon as abrasive and these are women of the world and parliamentarians and ministers around the world is the same it's the same what do you need to keep attention?

17:48tell me two or three things and there's also a generational differentiated position there's a generation of women who are in their 50s, 60s they don't wear more lipstick so that they don't go to the background they didn't make the hair they didn't wear good they didn't wear good designer clothes so that they don't notice in their office you can notice they will face stiff backlash or their character would be assassinated so they are 50 years old who have had those experiences when you are in 20-30 years they say you are inexperienced 30-40 years then they say that you are kids, you have to have a board exam, you have to have time for the exam when you are 40-50 you are told make way for the 20-year-old when you're 50 to 60 you might as well be dead because you're like, hey, you're still there so it's not easy I'm not being one of those feminists this is the truth have you ever been with?

18:59what? have you ever faced these problems? no I've never seen the problem people ask and say and irritate I don't know there's so many people who have no idea say it

19:15before it was that 20 something media young it was it was good then they don't see you coming then they you my you say and then you shop and then slowly slowly slowly slowly slowly slowly slowly slowly slowly slowly and suddenly of such a huge body of work that they can't deny you. Problem, when you've proven. Nice. And have you felt there's I was reading about it in an article okay specifically and it was talking about actually worldwide women all around the world when they're powerful people stop loving them. Like people love them till the time they're very powerful. After they're powerful then the case is that they're talking about their anger.

20:10There's an there's an expectation that you will be maternal. It's not a wrong expectation. It's not a bad reflection on men. It is a bad reflection on upbringing. So around the world, what upbringing is wrong? How did we make the context of how women are to be viewed?

20:34We said that you are a nurturer. and you do something in that nurturing umbrella, then you are acceptable. Your power should not shriek. It should always whisper. If power shrieks, then you truly do not understand power. Silence is power. Wow. Absence is power. I always say to people, the mother understands the right time after dying of her. that you understand. You can take granted. You phone and your mother's voice is not there.

21:14You go home, why not be a big man? Today, she is crying. She is crying. If she only keeps her, she knows that something happened.

21:40So we translate these emotions on a wider canvas. And you have to understand that. It's not that even if I'm saying you bring the whole vision in a family. I am going to the party in the world. In the world, if you have a smile on the show of the show, it doesn't like you. Why do you come to politics? Why do you come to politics? They come to because they don't get hurt. They come to because they don't want to leave. There are a lot of people who come to. Why do you come to problem? Why do you come to problem? Why do you come to problem? This means you have a hope. You are not a human. Nice. Yeah.

22:31So can you be loud? You have learned all of these things or it was inherent? This is me. But I've never spoken about me. 15 years I've spoken about my party. Before that I've spoken about my work as an actor. These are the rare conditions. Nobody's asked me all this. What's the most misunderstood thing about you? I don't know. Because you're misunderstood in some metrics by many. But what do you think is the biggest misunderstanding? I think it stems from the perception of, couldn't care less. As a politician, do I deliver? Yes. To my party, I do. To my constituents, I do. To parliament, I do.

23:19As a person who is building policy papers, I work with the CII the Confederation of Indian Industries I work with Bill Gates do I deliver? yes I do as an actor do I deliver on set? I do everybody knows that so people who are engaged with me their expectations of me do I fulfill? yes then why do I deliver? what do I do with my children? sometimes it happens like you know the whispers about you around me doesn't matter never bother no you should have whispers about you otherwise why don't you give someone true if you have no whispers that means you're redundant yeah so you like that little bit of a thing no I have no attachments which is I think the most scary part about being me I don't get swayed by popularity I don't get swayed by controversy I don't get swayed if you hate me and gets weird if you love me but tell me one time okay think hard and you have to tell me something but one time where some rumor or some insult or something that really affected it got under your skin we all have that you are spiritually unaffected you are as a human being I can say that mentally also unaffected nothing has gotten under your skin ever even when they attack your family my family did not choose uh fame attention do they bear the consequences of it yes but can i avoid what happens to us i can't um even if i was not famous would they have gone through their own journeys of disappointments would they have gone through their own journeys of backlashes would they have gone through their own journeys where they are shattered as people yes today I'm just one factor which makes it happen in their life even if you remove them maan lije kal ko mein mar gahi to kya mere pariwar mein aisa koi hai jo guaranteed hai ki usko jiva na koji chunote nil hiin ge to now I'm a factor I'm not their whole life but then does it affect you kya aap ki wajay se I saw some clip where you got a little angry my issue is does it affect me like there's a speech of mine that goes viral of shouting at Sonia Gandhi my father had a stroke just 15 minutes before that I'm the eldest in my family I was the only one in Delhi I still remember 10.30 I was to address the press 11 o 'clock was parliament 10.45 my father collapsed in CP cannot place in Delhi I was at Tuglia Crescent at my official residence you are to present yourself to the parliament of India at 11 o 'clock sharp so what do you do?

26:33you have 15 minutes you can't get to CP you can get to parliament and you don't have the time to seek permission from parliament to say sahab I can't appear why because you're taking a position to defend the president of india so you rush i mean i had nobody then i rushed my assistant i said koi jao and medanta which was the hospital which was one hour away my father's taken into emergency i go to parliament i mean i know what i've lived in that one hour 15 minutes what was going on in your head and just to get him to a doctor and just to go to parliament finish my parliamentary obligations i finished my parliamentary obligations went to the speaker's room sought permission that sir because i have to seek permission from the leadership um and sought permission i still remember the home minister being there and the speaker they were in a meeting i'm sorry but i'm saying this and i said sir my dad just had a stroke i need to get to him but those are your responsibilities you seek permission even in that moment yes and you go and you spend that time between the hospital and your parliamentary office till your dad is okay to you know go about my son I mean collapsed the first time second session of 2014 winter session I think between aims and parliament was on even then it's running none of my parliamentary colleagues knew except my leadership that my kid is in hospital what prepares you for this you've seen so much that your brain just works on your brain actually works on yeh hua yeh hua yeh hua iska yeh samadhan yeh samadhan yeh samadhan yeh sareh samadhan dijiye har rishte ke saath in saf ki jiye.

28:38Her rishthe ke prateeru responsibility hai usko fulfill ki jiye. But sometimes it's this pure emotion that it's your father it's your kid. Yes. You koj logic dhahan ne yaata us time pe. Like how do you Wohi mujhe lagtah hai aapka true test hai as an individual. Fair. Ki kya aapka emotion aapko itna subsium kar leta hai ki aapki responsibility uska khamiyas abho ati hai. So amne kubhi responsibility ko pichai nini raha? Nain. like I've always had a lot of time people talk about it my child was 3 days when I was on my job why? because I had to watch all the episodes I had a miscarriage and I was working with two producers one of them Ravich Upraajan said, I can actually afford to give you a week off but Itha could not afford because she was airing everyday so somebody went told her that she's saying that she's saying that production people do this we're going to shoot we're ready we're not available she's saying that nothing happens actually so you're going to take your hospital reports to tell you that's true you don't feel emotionally crushed at that time because you understand that the professionals they need to hide behind certain things to make sure that they don't look bad in front of their boss everybody's trying to get a job done everybody's dependent on that salary does all of this come from a sense of responsibility or does it come from a boss's order you have to be responsible also for other people who are dependent but now is it is it pure responsibility that boss's order that what they have done will they have left they will have left they will have left I was not giving them I was giving them someone else goes they don't go you can't get up there are too many factors at play when you are somebody like me it's not me alone true so can you manage those factors to the best of your ability you should but tell me about that time you didn't answer that there was just any time when your family member gets attacked it gets to your head no irritate from the inside no anger or something no I think what happens is and what my people who love me do not want is something inside me snapping and me wanting to kind of settle that score.

31:13Like you don't want this woman settling scores. Do you settle scores? No. Never? No, I take it as an indication genuinely only kisi ka life ek aise mukaam par shayad pahunch raha hai that everything will be downhill from now if they have done this to me it has happened so anytime somebody does something to me pehle sab intri hotte thai je mein muskurathi thi and I like what's wrong with you why would you smile and later when I started exhibiting these examples I was like oh papre so I genuinely believe it'll happen that someone has made something wrong it'll happen it'll happen it's not like that 10-20 years it'll happen you'll hear it in one month it'll start you have to know that you're not where you are without God's blessing so if it is a domino effect and you're being pushed that means somebody either get pushed back or pushed forward.

32:28You have to realize that you're that one little thing. I realized that very early. I started seeing those examples before me. Wow. So you got this realization very early. No, because it happened right in front of me. Give me an example. I'm lucky enough to observe. Give me an example. I sound very, very... I was working with somebody till the last day of the ninth month while I was also doing Kyunki. it was a daily talk show and I was told that you have to bank and bank episodes from before this is for the lay person who is watching and then you have to go to the next 30 days imagine this was my first stint I just bought a house I have EMI and I said the doctor what are you doing your health is bad the baby something happened no no no 30 days later I will go back to the hospital.

33:25EMI will be filled quickly. You are 25 years old. And I'm in the hospital after giving birth to my baby. And I hear I'm fired. Right before? Just after having the baby. And I just shot like a day before. And they were just waiting for me to get into the hospital to say you're fired. And why? Just. That you have to take a break? That's why I'm fired? Yes, we have made a bank. bana lisa hai toh isko replace karddeenke tab tak so maine jom mehnat ki thi usko mujhe hi replace karne mein use karne ka unka irata tha I started smiling breech candy tha and my family like he muskura kyu rahi isko baut pressure hai bichari ko he was like I was smiling and I think that's the first time I told my family that this is gonna happen so they said why I said no I used to write mostly the script also I used to do everything you do it ideate I was doing for the show so they hired a film actor for it you know we'll hire somebody who's exhibits is much more bigger intellectual bigger name blah blah blah I kept smiling and the show shut down and the show never started again Smriti Rani's hidden superpower I know it is just God it is genuinely God how our whole life that I have to go through regret and through revenge.

34:53I don't do both. Nothing regret is not. This is a mentality. No, no. I always had to do it. You have to choose choices in life. One time you have to choose consciously. I think that the plan is not good. You have to choose choice. How can you regret? I think that you have to choose choice and that you leave such a thing which will succeed very much. But it was your choice. How do you regret it? You have calculated in that circumstance, in that time, in that mode of life. Every person does it. Okay. But there is no such thing that I left it. It's big. You have to be tuned in every minute of the day.

35:41And not get swayed at all. You have to know what is an act and what is reality. Do you know online people say you have built a very intimidating personality. Do you think so? I don't know. If they are online and have never met me offline, how do they know? By the persona. People make their opinion. The offline never gets it. Their online opinion. But you think you have to make an intimidating personality. You have a very powerful, very strong, certain personality. I was always like this. Even when we were like sitting on the bed and I was like I was 7 years old my mother was like your brain is bad what did you say I'll become a success I'll buy this house I'll buy this house you're crazy my mother was like what's wrong with you when I came first to Mumbai Bombay then I was 17 Kamala Nehru Park there's a train there's a train marine drive lights I said I'll go to the city I'll go to the city you're crazy you're crazy you're crazy you're crazy you're crazy 7 years 17 years.

36:45Every place I was like this. One day. So, one page I said, what happened to you? You're not looking at it, brother.

36:56How is this? You're not looking at it? So, now I've read it. I'm like, manifest me. I'm like, I'm a lot of funny. Manifest is genuinely. If you don't trust yourself, why will you trust you? When I realized that I'm a dreamer? Dreamer me, I mean, certain but dreams for certain I don't know this is reality I don't know I mean I didn't study I didn't study I'm reading Hardy Boys I'm reading Hardy Boys I'm reading I'm reading I'm reading I'm such a person or you were talking but there was a realization at the point 7 7 realization that I was first to eat now you're generationally passed on

37:46now your kids are like I like this I have told them that you have never believed in your life maybe you have never seen your own because you have never seen your own you don't know your own challenges your own your own tell me what poverty what can you teach privilege ambition tenacity and what difference is that ambition and what difference is that poverty is that poverty and also also some people are broken and some people are broken what difference is that what do you think is different I have seen and there is nothing more scary than to see a male member of your family cry I have seen there's nothing scary than that when they are helpless I'm like, let's leave other people I've seen the people who are crying in the grave and if you have grown with this humanity people often ask them, they don't have a man but for you, foundationally the male member that can't be destroyed in our families

39:32mm maradio come properly is a good girl. If you are a good girl, if you are a good girl, then say, I will give you a good girl.

39:44That my father, where he is, 75 years old. My mother, who is 75 years old. My father, who is a good girl. My father, who is a big thing. Who is a good girl. Who is a good girl. Who is a good girl. My colleagues, lord angels appear in the centre

40:23Treshali

40:30would be in the school the school around Tony Quво I ever said I will save the life and nobody the confidence relação You say I have faith of a gift it is pathm Pool ..that you must be associated with me and where I got family to meet your friends.. ..or your name probably when you wake.. ..me Ruiz Pope Rexx has also been renowned.. ..and you will never conditions with me.. ..and I never miss myself because I know it just is also.. ..it was not a bad outcome.. ..like a positive voice the proper health.. When I realised.. ..well ago the circumstances.. .. kindness or how to recover it.. where my father was staying in the new colony there was a message that was a dry cleaning shop I didn't know that we were staying in the room in the store of dry cleaner when you are a kid you have no idea when I went back I was like I was staying in the dry cleaner in the store of dry cleaner and my mother and my father I was like, I'm going to clean the house and I'm going to clean the house I didn't know that we were staying long term I put my age on his father.

42:01He used to keep achildren traversed into them so they готовler to tell me about me at 11 midnight my office saying I am looking forwoman we were looking to buy Fromitee Rani in his case, he didplant Kalauan for a five-six years I made on my phone at 11 2000. I had야 I пит into 19.30 about something I had told her to tell her Oh my sister this is Janice's wedding its way to bringing our body it is now Can you help? This happened a month ago. No, three weeks ago. That's right. I was thinking, where are you? I said, I'm going to open the embassy tomorrow. We will do the phone. I said, the next morning, I said, did you come or not?