There are actors who reinvent their image. And then there are actors who simply tell you the truth. Susmita Mukherjee chose the latter in a recent video that has been making rounds on social media.It started with a fan asking why an actress of her calibre appeared in films that were sexist and derogatory to women. Most would have deflected. Mukherjee went deeper. “Did I sell my soul? Of course, I sold my soul. Did I feel good about it? I didn’t feel good then. I still don’t feel good about it, but it was my helplessness,” she said.The helplessness had a very specific origin. In 2002, her family’s media company Prayas Production shut down under the weight of a Rs 1 crore loan. She was not alone — Track Cinema and Anil Chaudhary Production collapsed alongside them. Debt collectors began arriving at her home regularly, her children were small, and the only way forward was to keep working. Every rupee earned went toward clearing the debt, which took nearly four years to repay.Once the debt was settled, a new financial commitment took its place. Mukherjee decided to send her daughter to study in Australia and New Zealand, she said, “She was doing well in her studies, so I started sending her abroad. My husband was a nationalist. He said, aren’t there good schools and colleges in India? But somehow or the other, I felt like it, so I sent her abroad.”Today she draws a clear line between that chapter and where she stands now. “Now I don’t do any work that doesn’t touch my soul,” she said. The compromise is behind her. The explanation, she felt, was long overdue.