What’s with the fake accent?

Tannishtha doesn’t get actors who talk like that when they’re not on set

Why would you speak like that all the time? We are totally smitten by America. Everything is a reflection of that hangover TANNISHTHA CHATTERJEE, ACTOR

Actor Tannishtha Chatterjee (right) who has acted in quite a few international projects, says that the character one portrays in a film, decides whether they need an accent or not.

“In the Australian film Unindian (2016) I played somebody who was born and raised in India, so my English was what we speak here, not Australian. If I am to play a character who was born and raised in New York right from childhood, I’ll have to put on that accent because that’s how people speak there. When I did Brick Lane (2007) the guy who was playing my lover,had to pick up a Bangladeshi second generation accent, which is not Queen’s English,” says Tannishtha who has worked in films such as Lion (2017), Unindian, Brick Lane and Shadows of Time (2005).

The actor doesn’t understand actors who work in one or two international films and then flaunt an accent even when they are not shooting. “I understand that many actors imitate an accent closer to the understanding of the given audience, as that’s what the makers want. But otherwise, why would you speak like that all the time?” she says, adding that it’s a different aspect of a cultural hangover. “We are totally smitten by America – for everything. It’s all a reflection of that hangover.”

PHOTO: AALOK SONI/ HT