Can’t blame industry entirely for not being open minded, says Tillotama
Actor Tillotama Shome is still fresh in the memory of some as the grooming teacher in Irrfan-starrer Hindi Medium (2017). But it’d be unfair to define her art with just one project. Having also starred in Monsoon Wedding (2001), Children of War (2014), and Qissa (2013), her choice of offbeat films is apparent.
Does Tillotama blame the industry for offering her similar roles? “I don’t want to raise the banner for offbeat or intense films. My first few roles demanded silence, intensity and I became a ‘serious actor’. I could blame the industry for not being more open minded, but not entirely. The truth is I was not open-minded myself. I haven’t celebrated the lighter, more joyous aspects of my life as much as I have nourished my intensity,” she says.
In her recent film, Sir, she plays a domestic help who shares a thick bonding with the house owner. It is receiving global acclaim at various film festivals. “I don’t want to be limited as an actor and a human being. I don’t want to get soft by remaining in my comfort zone but the film has to excite me, off beat or not,” says Tillotama, who unlike many actors, doesn’t find it too difficult to detach from her onscreen characters.
“I am preoccupied when preparing for a film and have very little time or interest in anything except long walks and swims. But after the work is done, I brush it off; I ritualise the end of a project with cooking a meal and having friends over. What lives on is the memory of the people you worked with,” she concludes.