From farmer’s proud daughter to best actor
Aproud daughter of a farmer, actor Vartika Tiwari believes that one should never shy from his or her roots. “The sense of belonging to a small village is surreal. I’m proud of my ancestry and glad that my parents, who are still into farming, understand my career as an actor. Today, nobody asks them ‘shaadi kab ho rahi bitiya ki...’
“It’s a very small village which is still struggling to find its place on the country’s map, so for them it’s a big thing if from among them someone reaches Mumbai,” said the ‘Raazi’ actor.
Currently, Tiwari is basking in the success of her latest short film that won her the Best Actor’s award, “When we were in lockdown and I was all alone, locked with an aloe vera plant, Rajesh (Tailang) sir saw my social media post. He suggested shooting a short film with the plant, with me as the subject of the story. So, that’s how ‘Trivediji’ happened, where Sir directed me online and I shot all on my phone. It won two awards at Yellowstone International Film Festival one for screenplay and another for the Best Actor in short film category.”
Hailing from Bhadohi in UP, Tiwari said her journey has been full of struggles. “I always knew that it would never be easy for me to change my life. And I’ll always be grateful to my maternal uncle, who after I finished high school studies, took me to
Delhi for further studies. And he was the one who advised me to join theatre and then made me enrol in the National School of Drama. He knew well that this was the only way for me to achieve something in life. Nothing came easy but I have no regrets,” she said.
“After my course from NSD, I did a few short films like ‘Delhi,’ ‘Mamatva’ over the course of two years after I started my career. And then I got an opportunity to work with Meghana Gulzar’s ‘Raazi,’ followed by two independent feature films named ‘Half Songs’ and ‘Teen Muhurat. I want more work to come my way while I wait for the release of my new films,’ said Vartika who was lately seen in the web series ‘The Great Indian Dysfunctional Family.’