‘The real me’

Award-winning actress, Tara says acting is easier than politics as one can go by the script in the former

Karnataka Bengaluru :27/02/2018 Actor Tara during the 10th Bengaluru International Film Festival at Orion Mall in Bengaluru on Tuesday. Photo: Sampath Kumar G P

Hebbettu Ramakka is about an uneducated woman who gets into politics, fights against all odds and shows there is a way for a woman to make her mark in a male-dominated world. Actor and politician, Tara, plays the protagonist in the film. “As the film is related to politics I was able to relate to the character both as an actor and a politician saw a lot of similarities with my experience,” says Tara, adding that she is thrilled her film was chosen for screening at BIFFES.

What kind of similarities? “They are professional similarities. The kind of women I have worked with as a politician. I have seen that the woman does not get credit. The husband wants to take credit even for small household achievements. The situation is the same in the film too. Some MLA or a politician wants to take the credit for her works and interferes in all her decision making. In the process, the woman is ignored and dominated in such a way that she starts to feel handicapped and connects everything to her lack of education,” explains Tara, who made her debut with the Tamil film, Ingeyum Oru Gangai — her Kannada debut was in Thulasidala .

She went on to act in films such as

Kanooru Heggadithi directed by Girish Karnad,

Hasina ,

Care of Footpath and

Ee Bandhana.

Tara feels there is no difference in the portrayal of women in films over the years. “It is the same. Just that a few characters and stories demand a strong portrayal of the woman. Then there are movies where a woman is depicted in an unrealistic manner. Like if she is a cop, she ends up bashing up 10 rowdies, which one cannot even imagine in real life. We either depict a woman as an extreme rebel or an extreme feminist. Films where women are depicted realistically are branded parallel cinema. There is only good and bad cinema. We have come up with so many names – commercial, art or parallel cinema.”

The actor says the only way to break this outlook is by making cinema “where the depiction is real, the film is fast, have good dialogues and so on. Cinema should not leave us with questions. In my view it should give us the answers. Cinema is not just entertaining, but also educative. When that happens, I will call it bridge cinema.”

On which is easier between acting and politics, Tara says, “Cinema, of course. Acting comes naturally to me. I get the scripts and am told how to emote. Someone writes the script or creates a character and we just become a part of that dream. But in politics, you see the real me. I have no one to write my dialogues, but work to establish myself in the real world as the real me.”

Where does she place Kannada movies compared in the international scene? “We may not accept some situations and depictions as we are deeply rooted in our culture. We should make films in such a manner that people relate to the character. We have not yet changed our thinking. If people change their viewpoint, then we can change the way cinema is made here. We have two kinds of people — one that is forward thinking and the other that has stayed the same for years. So while some may connect with the films screened at BIFFES others may not relate to what they see. Again I feel that bridge cinema is the answer.”