On Friday, Anup Singh’s critically acclaimed festival hit Qissa released in select theatres around the country as well as on video-on-demand (and DVD) through NFDC’s website cinemasofindia.com, making it one of the first simultaneous cross-platform independent film releases in the country. I met Tillotama Shome, the star of what’s been the best Indian film I watched in 2013, for coffee and conversation about the multi-layered tale of identity, sexuality, gender, displacement and politics.
When she first found out that the film would have a limited release in theatres and go straight to video-on-demand and DVD, Tillotama was a little disappointed. “We had been told it would be a bigger release. When I calmed down, I realised it’s after all a Punjabi film with subtitles. For it to have a national release is a big deal. So many good Bengali films run for 100 days but don’t get a national release. When I look at it from that perspective, it’s good.” She’s still sceptical about video on demand. “How many people do we know who order films on demand? I don’t know anyone.”
I tell her The Interview (that released across platforms internationally on Christmas day) grossed an unprecedented $40 million in less than a month online, and she hopes Qissa will do as well. Did she think about the market when she signed up? “No, I didn’t. The script was quite a handful. I have never said ‘No’ to work ( laughs ). When Anup asked me which character I wanted to play, I picked Neeli (the role that went to Rasika Duggal) though I was riveted by Kanwar only because I wasn’t sure I could play it... especially because of the language. But Anup said we had time to prepare and the film was pushed by months. Anyway, coming to your question, I detach myself from the aspect of release or market when I pick a film.”
The size and kind of project don’t matter, she says. About 15 years ago, nobody knew that a small film shot in a farmhouse in Gurgaon would go on to become a hit around the world. Or that Tillotama would be discovered in Monsoon Wedding . Qissa’s journey spanned 12 years and director Anup Singh approached Tillotama around 2010. It’s an incredibly challenging role, one that should rightfully win her more awards in the festival season next year.
Tillotama plays someone born a woman but raised as a man. “Anup said: ‘I want to see the struggle of you trying and failing to be a man’. So he asked me to find a private face for the character... what my body language would be when I am on my own. He gave me parameters, a public face and a private face, who I allow into the private space... So I wasn’t trying to be anything other than a character trying to make her father love her.”
It was tricky because Kanwar wasn’t entirely a woman, and was equally uncomfortable in women’s clothes. “I read somewhere that in Afghanistan girls raised as men during the war continued dressing up as men after the war because they just got used to it. While playing the character, I felt the freedom and the restrictions of both genders. There’s something so free about driving a truck and showing off to other women. So I was just enjoying it. I never thought of it as a lesbian story or any of those things. It helped me not to complicate matters too much.”
Is man or woman a product of nature or nurture then? “Whether it is natural or unnatural is very reductive. The definition stands on the argument that men and women are two separate entities with nothing in common. The definition between masculine and feminine is a very thin line and there’s a lot of androgyny in us. If you celebrate your androgyny, then you can celebrate a same sex relationship or a heterosexual relationship... celebrate the feminine in each other or the masculinity. It’s much more than labels and it could change over time.”
Identity and orientation is sometimes a product of the environment, she says. “If you are in a violent or abusive heterosexual relationship, maybe there is a propensity to pick a same sex relationship. There are so many stories of different men and women in different stages of exploration. Identity is a sum total of experiences. It’s fluid and constantly changing. That’s what Qissa is about. When you create separations, between countries or between the masculine and the feminine, there will be violence... unless you celebrate some sort of commonality.”
Qissa is playing in Sathyam in Chennai.
