She has never been easy to box in. Masaba Gupta – designer, founder, actress, and now mother – is known for defying labels and rewriting rules. While working at cementing her place as one of India’s creative entrepreneurs, she also has a growing body of work in front of the camera and she is proof that reinvention, when it comes from a place of authenticity, is a superpower. In a conversation with Bombay Times, Masaba opens up about how motherhood has sharpened her instincts, why the “do-it-all” ideal is due for a reality check, and what it truly means to show up – in business, on set, and in life. ‘YOU REALISE THAT TIME IS NOT INFINITE’“I think becoming a mom, I don’t know if I’m more ambitious now, but I do feel like that. I do feel that I have a lot more courage to take some braver calls,” Masaba said, explaining how motherhood has altered her outlook professionally and personally. According to her, becoming a mother forces one to reassess priorities. “You get a lot of clarity after becoming a mother only because you realize that time is not infinite and that you want it to be used in its most effective and efficient way. And it’s not truly necessary to devote your energy to everything,” she said.That clarity, she added, extends to the people and environments she now chooses to surround herself with. “You become selective about where you spend your time, how you spend it, what are the kind of people you want to work with. I think I have discovered that I want to be around high performers and people who are self-starters. And I think it gives you a lot of clarity on how much of your bandwidth you want to share with everything else that you do.” Masaba also questioned the modern expectation placed on women to effortlessly balance every aspect of life simultaneously. “Do-it-all is a very great concept on paper, but I don’t know if it actually holds true for a lot of people, for a lot of women, because there have to be certain sacrifices in certain spaces,” she said. “There are things that don’t need to be done all at once. I think you can do-it-all, but you just have to space it out in a way that feels manageable for you.”‘I HAVE A LOT OF DISCIPLINE ON SET, AND THAT STEMS FROM BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR’Having moved from fashion and entrepreneurship into acting, including playing a fictionalised version of herself in a series, Masaba says the transition has felt more natural than people assume. “I don’t think I approach acting differently but I do have a lot of discipline when I’m on set and I think that discipline stems from being an entrepreneur,” she said, crediting her entrepreneurial background for shaping her work ethic. “Being the founder of my own business means you inherently have a lot more respect for people’s time, for everybody who is working hard on a set. And I think you value everybody’s individual contribution a lot more.” For Masaba, whether it is fashion, business or cinema, the objective remains similar: “You want the end product to be really nice, you want everyone to come away feeling good… and at the same time you want to be efficient and do it in the most professional way possible.” She believes entrepreneurs are particularly equipped to deal with the unpredictability of film sets. “Entrepreneurs actually do a great job of being around camera,” she said. “They are always going for efficiency and optimizing for time.” The lack of rigid structure in creative spaces, she added, is something founders instinctively understand. “There’s a lot of uncertainty when it comes to being on a film set or an ad set… but entrepreneurs are used to that. That unstructured, winging-it kind of method of working works.” ‘I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT I DO MY BEST’Despite navigating multiple identities, designer, founder, actor and now mother, Masaba says her core approach remains unchanged. “I just want to make sure that I do my best and that everyone has a good time while doing it,” she said. And while entrepreneurship may revolve around “risk, profit and survival,” she sees strong similarities between business and entertainment. “It’s pretty much the same in films,” she said, “it’s just that it’s a lot more creative-first, the process.”
