'Got more respect as member of parliament than as artiste'

A successful Bharatnatyam dancer and Bollywood's evergreen 'Dreamgirl', Hema Malini, who became a BJP MP in 2004, says that she got "more respect" as a member of parliament than being an artiste. “You get more respect as a member of parliament. As an artiste, I had my own dignity, but as a politician it increases... It doesn’t go down,” Hema, who represents the Mathura constituency in Lok Sabha, told media in interview. Recently, Hema was embroiled in allegations that she had illegally grabbed a plot of land for her dance academy Natyavihar Kalakendra Charity Trust at a nominal price of Rs.70,000 in Mumbai's Andheri area. But the Padma Shri awardee says the whole hullabaloo happened because she was a BJP MP.