Having debuted in Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (2001) as the maid named Alice, a role she performed in quiet contrast to the louder chaos around her, actor Tillotama Shome has gone on to do numerous national and international projects. Her foreign forays include dramas like Claire McCarthy’s TheWaiting City (2009) and Jeffrey Brown’s Sold (2014), to name a few. Back home, her name is largely associated with “serious” arthouse cinema – a demarcation she challenged earlier this year by playing the contemptuous educational consultant in Saket Chaudhary’s satirical Hindi Medium (2017). Now in Nila Madhab Panda’s upcoming Kadvi Hawa , a film about how climate change brutally affects the disenfranchised, we will see her play a rural character named Parvati. The actor talks about being typecast, experimenting, and what makes good cinema in an email interview with The Hindu . Edited excerpts…
Studying educational theatre, teaching convicts in prison… When did you start seeing performance as integral to the formative process of individuals?
I grew up with a stammer, and at Lady Shri Ram College I saw my first play and made a conscious choice to act. Being on stage rid me of my stammer. The magical world of performance was anathema to who I believed I was. It bypassed the cops in my head, who felt they knew what I could do and what I could not. Even today, everyday is about challenging what I think I know and what I feel I can’t do. I think you have to be a little crazy and a little dreamy to want to be an actor.
Whilst I was in the process of researching [educational theatre ], Monsoon Wedding (2001), my first film happened and I fell in love with the intimacy of the camera. After that, I did another film called Shadows of Time (2004) by Florian Gallenberger. I got a few film offers from Mumbai but [at] 21, [I] lived in Delhi and [was] completely unaware of the industry in Mumbai.
I was fortunate to get a full scholarship from Inlaks Foundation to study at New York University (NYU) and followed my heart. At NYU I got to discover a whole new world of using theatre to enter delicate spaces where the chalk and talk method had failed. I was fortunate to work with The Creative Arts Team [an educational outreach programme], especially the work at Rikers Island prison. There’s a very fine line separating the prison inmate from us on the outside. I learnt a lot about acting and making choices while working in the prison. But it was an emotional burn-out. Besides, I wanted to act in films again and I did not want to disguise that desire behind a cloak of social activism.
Can you give us an insight into Kadvi Hawa and Parvati?
[Director] Nila [Madhab Panda] called me and asked me to read the script. I had never met him before, but the script intrigued me and I said yes. The relationship between the two [protagonists] (played by Sanjay Mishra and Ranvir Shorey) caught my attention. The impact of climate change on the life of [Parvati] and her everyday running of her household, how it fractures her family and intimacy were points of curiosity for me.
Do you think enough is being done to control and draw attention to the rising emission rates?
Of course not, [and] that’s plain to see. These changes need to be systemic. At a personal level, it boils down to my sense of responsibility and the daily changes I make to not make the situation worse. Changing laws are tough but possible, changing people's minds and habits is way tougher.
You’ve worked in films across mediums and languages. Do you keep the diverse audiences in mind?
You are lucky when you stumble upon work that is unfamiliar: you fall on your face and scrape your knees but it expands your sense of self. I like that kind of falling; it’s an adrenaline rush. There are some basic things that need to be in place: the script, the part, the director and the money (in no particular order, or maybe there is, but it keeps changing). It's also just a great feeling to be able to trust the director, because film is entirely a director’s medium and as an actor you are so vulnerable. The role, small or big, needs to have something about it that is new to me.
I do not think of my audience when I am in front of the camera at all [because it] is a very intimate affair. If the film requires me to learn a language or skill I don’t possess I make sure I have the time and find good teachers to help me. I like learning slowly, so time is of essence.
You are no stranger to international films. What draws you towards those projects, as opposed to the cinema being done back home?
A film is not just made for its makers but for an audience and the journey to find it is a precarious road. It is wonderful when a film reaches out to large audience, but as an actor I have no skills in being able to guess which film will be embraced and which will not. I am very grateful for the directors who have trusted me with a part and I am always thirsting for more opportunities to fall and grow. I will do a film that raises questions for me.
With Hindi Medium (2017), you moved away from the serious roles you were getting typecast with. Was returning to a rural character for Kadvi Hawa a conscious decision?
[Casting director] Honey Trehan had called me for the part of the consultant in Hindi Medium . He told me, “The character is a bit of a bitch and you will be perfect for it”. [There was] a long silence from my end. “I mean your face can be cryptic and one can’t tell what you are really feeling, which would be good for this character."
I, of course, laughed a lot. But he also wanted me to do the part as the film was in the comedic and satire genre, and the character is well-dressed, rich, and urbane. He felt that would help break the stereotype of the actress who usually plays “intense”, “serious”, “poor”, “rural”, “activist”, “maid” parts... Besides, my husband felt our marriage would last longer if I explored the comedic in me.
More than people typecasting me I was afraid of becoming limited as an actor. And that impulse is what guides me. I want to explore that impulse more, and that does not mean I won’t play serious or rural characters anymore.
