Vega Tamotia believes in honing her acting skills by taking up short-term courses. She shuttles between her homes in New York and Mumbai, working on films that fire her imagination, sometimes stepping in to help produce them.
The pretty actress, who made her Tamil debut as a school girl in Venkat Prabhu’s Saroja is just back from a course in improvisation at the famed Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) in New York. “More than work, it is important to learn, to upgrade oneself constantly,” says the actress, who is awaiting the release of Amit Sahni Ki List , her rom-com with funnyman Vir Das.
It’s a film that saw Vega do a fun turn, after the moving Chittagong , where she essayed the character of Pritilata Waddedar. “I have a great character in Amit … she is a girl who is a tea-taster one day, a sky-diving instructor the next and a hacker another day. She’s the kind of person we aspire to be. She understands life. I enjoyed working on the movie. It helped that my co-star was Vir; he’s great fun to be with. Some days, he would bring the guitar to the set, we would make some great music… I cherish every bit of the film.”
Vega’s just back from New York and she’s already neck-deep in rehearsals. Theatre is a passion, and she has been part of award-winning plays. In movies, Vega picks roles that appeal to her. These are a few perks, she believes, of not working just for money. She makes money from things other than acting. Vega works in the field of film finance, produces small movies and web content. Her latest project is producing a web-based series for children.
“I want to be terribly proud of my films; I want my family to be proud of them. I might be making unconventional choices, but they have all helped me grow as an actor,” she says. She even did a Happy Happy Ga in Telugu, but that was made for a “different kind of audience”. “I am willing to experiment.”
So, is this a nice time to be in Bollywood, when experimentation is in and change seems to be the buzzword? “We’ve been speaking of this change for a long time now. Every year, there are two to three films that touch your heart and have the ability to turn into a trend. But, they don’t translate into the big picture,” she rues.
To make the best of the situation, Vega straddles the worlds of arthouse and commercial movies.
“I’m as proud of my Chittagong (she was also executive producer of the film) as I am of Saroja and Pasanga ,” she says.
Staying grounded comes easy to the actress. “I’m not that big a star, really,” she insists. “I still have my pani puri from a cart in Juhu. I still travel by auto. Thankfully, I still lead a regular life where I am in touch with real people and real situations. I won’t give that up for anything in the world.”
