Not Just Bollywood | The Night Manager’s best performance: Tillotama Shome as RAW agent

It was actress Tillotama Shome who was the brightest star in Disney+ Hotstar’s latest series, The Night Manager, the Hindi adaptation of the 2016 British television series and author John Le Carre’s novel of the same name. The show sees her playing Lipika Saikia Rao, a version of Angela Burr played by actor Olivia Colman.  With a cultural twist because the Hindi version of The Night Manager is set in India, she made her acting look authentic as a RAW agent with her mannerism in the show.

The role of Lipika played by Tillotama Shome is driven by her failure and that’s what makes her continue in this job and that’s what makes her performance stand out. Tillotama Shome had once mentioned in an interview with Firtspost’s Lachmi Deb Roy that when she tried her luck as an actor at age of thirty in Bombay and was told this is not the age to get any work, the disbelief in those words was stronger and the belief in her ability to dream to become a professional actor is what kept her alive.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

Preparation for the role of a RAW officer in The Night Manager.

Working in a Sarkari office wasn’t a very difficult thing for me because I am an Air Force kid and I have worked in NGOs so it was nothing foreign to be surrounded by files and folders and male dominated workforce having to circumvent men in power and yet get your job done. I think most middle class Indians are very familiar with this. And I am very much a product of middle class upbringing.

How did the role come to you?

It came many years ago. I don’t even remember carefully. In fact, it came to me at a time when Hrithik Roshan was associated with the project, then it just disappeared. And the next thing I heard that it’s been mounted again and they wanted me.  I met Sandeep and Priyanka and they told me about the project. I told them very clearly that I wouldn’t watch the show and that I would rather read the adaptation. My work will be entirely based on the screen play of the adaptation. I had a very good understanding with Priyanka so when I wanted to discuss something with her about the show, I would just message her.

Lipika, the character that I play, is driven by her failure and that’s what makes her continue in this job. Even if she has to hit bureaucratic walls and men in power who look down on her, I think it is her desire to come out of the situation that keeps her going.

In one of your past interviews you had mentioned that you made a career out of playing characters which are marginalised, rural, impoverished… What is the responsibility you take on your shoulder as an actor to portray such characters in the right way with dignity?

My responsibility is to deliver the vision of my director and not betray the trust they have in me. Over the years, playing characters that are marginalized, have made me hyper aware of not letting my body and mind give in to any tired clichés of claiming authenticity. The attempt is to find something unique about the character and run with it as honestly as possible. I have absolutely no regrets starting my career playing the role of a domestic help in Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding.

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