‘ACTORS LIVE A NOMAD’S LIFE’
Actor Shweta Basu Prasad talks about her hit fantasy drama, Chandra Nandini’s growing popularity in Indonesia, and working with Naseeruddin Shah for the third time
After hit fantasy drama, Chandra Nandini ended in November last year, Shweta Basu Prasad is thrilled to know that her TV show is now being aired in Indonesia and has found acceptance in the foreign country. Amazed by the reception, she says, “It is wonderful to see that the show is being loved by the people there. The cast was invited last month to Jakarta to meet the fans. It was overwhelming to meet people from a different land and culture, and getting so much love from them. There are many Indian shows that are doing well there and this trend has opened up different avenues for us in other Asian countries as well.”
Shweta is “practical” about her show’s ending as “actors can never be tied up with one project forever”, but she also felt sad when it happened and admits she does miss her costars and “dogs on the sets that they had adopted”. “TV shows are a longer commitment than films and one of the downsides of being an actor is getting too attached to things. I know not to do that but the cast of the show got attached to the stray dogs around the studios in Naigaon. We all used to take care of them, feed them etc. Once the show ended, one of the biggest setback was that we couldn’t see those dogs again.”
While she has proved her talent in films such as Makdee (2002) and Iqbal (2005), she was last seen in Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017). Once her TV shpw ended, she started shooting for director Vivek Agnihotri’s film The Tashkent Files with Naseeruddin Shah. “This is my third film with Naseer uncle. I play a journalist who is investigating the mysterious death of the Late PM Lal Bahadur Shastri. I had to unlearn a lot and prepare for the role. Actors are like gypsies — always shedding one role to don another one (laughs). We live a nomad’s life. It is so cool to be travelling often and playing a variety of characters in one life,” she says adding that she has known Shah since she was a kid. “Though, I worked with him in Iqbal and then he starred in the short film I produced, called Interior Cafe Night in 2014, I have known him since I met him in Mr Vishal Bhardwaj’s office during Makdee. He has literally seen me grow up. It has been good fun working with him on this film. We had long chats and spoke about life and cinema. We share a sweet and warm relationship. I have watched most of his plays as he invites me for the special shows,” she signs off.