EXCLUSIVE | Tooth Pari actor Tillotama Shome: 'I don't think this is the best time for women, we have a long way to go'
EXCLUSIVE | Tooth Pari actor Tillotama Shome: 'I don't think this is the best time for women, we have a long way to go'
Tillotama Shome is one of the most exciting actors and compelling performers in the content landscape currently. The word currently is being used despite the fact that she has been a part of the landscape for more than two decades. It all began for her in Mira Nair’s sensational Monsoon Wedding in 2001, and thanks to OTT, she found her calling as an artist.
She has delivered one searing performance after another in the form of Sir, Delhi Crime season 2, The Night Manager, and now gears up for Tooth Pari. And in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, she opens up on almost all of it.
On playing Alice in Monsoon Wedding
Well, Alice was my debut and very, very special. My first director Mira Nair introduced me to the world of cinema, and I’ll forever be grateful to her. This thing that we do is entirely a collaborative process, many people have to come together and drop their egos and work beautifully. Alice was that gift, that gift to remember when things were harder and when one didn’t have work. I think the experience of being a part of something so beautiful gave me the strength of sticking there you know. I was getting the parts of a maid and that was a cross one had to bare. But this is a cross I’d willingly bare again and again, I wouldn’t change anything. You have to be a little mad to want to be an actor, to want to make films since this is such a hard thing. Many people fall through in this obstacle race, and when you finally reach the finish line where journalists like you are asking us questions, it really feels like we have made it. And that feeling is very very special, and that’s the feeling I felt when I did my first film, and that feeling is still there. This is what we can create when we come together to fulfill the vision of the director. It’s a very humbling and collaborative proceeds and you’re never alone. It’s a luxury for me to lead this life. Even though I’m not 23 years anymore, it’s been 23 years since I started and I’m glad I still feel that sense of wonder. It was a sense of wonder the way Mira shot the story, it was the magic realism part of the film. From Alice to Mira has been a long journey and I still have the sense of wonder about what we do and I’m very thankful for that.
On feeling joyful on playing different and complex parts
Oh yes. For many years, work was few and far between, and one didn’t have validation. But I feel so blessed to have been gifted these parts by directors who didn’t only trust me on the basis of my prior performances but who were willing to offer me something I hadn’t done before. That leap of faith a director makes still makes me, what do I say, it fills me with gratitude. And I definitely felt that with Pratim and Shruti Mahajan, the casting director. She called me and said the director really wants me for this, and I was like ‘Really, I’m a Bengali and a very bad one at that, I can neither sing or dance and Meera is a courtesan so have you called me by mistake?’ Pratim took a leap of faith just like Mira did and took a gamble on me. You feel joyful when you get what you want but I would not even want such a thing. I did not even think I could get such a part because this is a woman whose relationship with desire is so unapologetic and so open. Tanuj did the same thing for Delhi Crime, so it just fills me with wonder because we are friends. And I must give them credit because you feel like a person waiting in an exam room. You are so focused of not letting your director down. I was not even auditioned for the part so I don’t know whether I would be able to even take this risk or not.
On her prep for Tooth Pari
I have never felt for any part that I was ready to go. We feel a certain way about ourselves and then certain situations happen that make you say oh my God. Despite spending so many years on my self, I still don’t completely understand who I am. So no matter which character you are playing you are never going to do enough. I play a courtesan in the show and she had to speak Urdu, and her leheza had to be of someone who spoke at a certain time, in a certain way and tonality, and her voice quality had to be slightly nasal. She is a courtesan so I had to take Kathak classes and there was a wonderful teacher and a wonderful Urdu teacher who really was so encouraging. The stress was not whether I will get the part, the stress was whether I will be able to do justice to the part. I really trusted Pratim because he’s the writer- Director. I couldn’t have done this without the help of Tariq bhai who taught me how to speak and Pratap, who did Kathak classes with me. And I would also like to thank Prerna Chawla, who taught me the right kind of body language.
Is this the best time for female actors?
I don’t think we should ever be in our best time because then we’ll start rotting. I think if we keep reinventing and reimagining ourselves, we will keep evolving and not get stuck in a fixed idea that this is the best time. We are here because of many women who paved the way for us. We have Revathi as a part of the show and her professional and personal choices are the reasons why the likes of us are doing what we are doing. It has been a pleasure reading Zeenat Aman’s posts on Instagram, and talking about how she approached work back in the day and the legacy women like these luminaries have created that has allowed people like us to be here. They have inspired us to do the same. I don’t think we can sit back and say that this is the best time for women, because there is a long way to go. There was a time when women had to bear the brunt of being supporting actors to their male counterparts. If you decide to tell a story where the parts of men are complex, the parts of women automatically become complex. Oversimplification of the male roles is also a problem. We have to keep reinventing. We have to keep re-thinking times are not bad and we have to owe it.
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