It’s one life and she’s going to live it: this is her mantra. From running a successful product design company, creating sculptures and contemporary art installations, to acting in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films, Lekha Washington loves having her hands full. In a freewheeling chat at the recent TiE event in the city, the actor talks to MetroPlus on what keeps her ticking.
“I have three completely separate careers, and I dress differently for each of them, talk differently, and even wear my hair differently for each of them. But there’s no other way I would have it,” she says. Other than being sleep-deprived from juggling her roles, Lekha says she enjoys every bit of it. “I have a good team and that helps. I’m greedy too; I know I shouldn’t be doing so many things, but I quite enjoy every aspect of it. Also, all three share a symbiotic relationship. Financially, a film will pay for an idea, an idea will pay for a sketch I’m doing and so on. But when I’m doing a film, it is somebody else’s idea, whereas when it comes to my company, it is my idea. It is nice to have that balancing out for me,” she explains.
Balancing her varied roles also means having to make certain sacrifices. “Of course, there are times when it’s difficult. This month, I have two solo art shows and I would have liked to take up an acting project, but had to take a step back,” she says, adding that on the bright side, this affords her the luxury of being choosy with her roles. “It’s nice that I don’t do every film that comes my way; I get to be choosy. I’m not financially dependent on films. It’s not about the fame or how many films have released. It is about the joy of acting. That is important to me.”
Lekha, who has acted in several Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films, portrays diverse roles with each project. “I love acting, since it lets me be different people,” she says. The actor, who has shot a couple of Hindi films, including one with Amitabh Bachchan, is reluctant to speak about them, but says that she could soon be seen on the silver screen. “I had taken a conscious step back from acting in the last ten months, since I wanted to focus on my design company ‘Ajji’. Now that it is more or less settled, I might take up something performance-related.”
The actor, who has done several art installations in the past few months, will soon be bringing one of her works to Chennai. “It is an installation depicting the different stages of the moon done in helium. It soars 150 feet into the sky and looks like multiple moons,” she says, visibly excited. That apart, she hopes to do some “scandalous” work soon. “I’m just bracing myself for the criticism,” she laughs.
In the meantime, her design company, that creates odd products like a wall chair, and another that looks like a huge blob of paint dropping from the ceiling, has won several awards apart from being featured on the cover of several national and design magazines. “My designs might seem too radical and might look quite unsittable. But they are comfortable. We showed at a fair in New York last year, and I hope to take my designs to several more international fairs in the next year. I believe India should also be known for its design quality. Though several top labels get products made here, they seldom admit to it. I’d like to break that glass ceiling,” she says, before she laughs and adds, “I’m giving myself five years for that and I know I’ll do it.”
