With a Vengeance

Known for her iconic roles in TV soaps, Sakshi Tanwar now plays in Mai “a mother you have not seen before”

Think of Sakshi Tanwar and you think of Parvati Bhabhi in Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii (20002008), the show that helped the actor find place in the homes and hearts of a loyal soap-loving audience. With Priya of Bade Achche Lagte Hain (2011-2014), Tanwar turned a corner with a more mature love story. Then, in 2016, as the mother of two aspiring wrestlers in the Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal, Tanwar enjoyed a big screen triumph. She followed that up with Karrle Tu Mohabbat (2017-19), a web series in which she reunited with her Bade Achhe... co-star Ram Kapoor.

Tanwar says she is delighted with the opportunities and working practices offered by streaming shows and digital media. Her latest is an intense thriller, Mai (streaming on Netflix from April 15), in which she plays Sheel, a mother on a mission to avenge her dead daughter. Cast as a nurse who sheds her natural compliance to find herself in the uncharted waters of politics and crime, Tanwar says, “As an actor, I had never before explored such a role or a genre. It’s an authorbacked role and something I knew I must try out.”

Having no reference point for building Sheel’s character, Tanwar, a self-professed “organic actor”, relied on the workshops conducted by director Atul Mongia. “I don’t usually like to prepare a lot but I felt this part would require preparation.” Playing the mother of a speech-impaired daughter, Tanwar learnt sign language and also underwent training as a nurse. “But mostly the preparation was the character’s internal journey.”

Today, as the mother of a four-year-old daughter herself, Tanwar is content, both personally and professionally.

She agrees that female actors now find themselves in a much better space. “Different kinds of roles are being written and a variety of stories are being told. Casting is now based on who suits which character and all kinds of actors and new talent are being given opportunities, especially with the advent of OTT,” says the 49-year-old actress.

In terms of her own journey, from daily soaps to feature films and OTT, she feels fortunate to “have played strong, central characters even in daily soaps and on TV”. She adds, “The change is for the better. The roles are more relatable and more real. Earlier, the mother was either white or black, but Sheel is neither. She is a shade of a mother you have not seen before.”

Her filmography since her debut on television in 1999 may not be long, but with two feature films now in the pipeline—Prithviraj and Sharmajee Ki Beti—Tanwar says she is unapologetic about once being associated with ‘saasbahu’ soaps. Does the actor ever feel she was typecast by these shows—which are often described as patriarchal and regressive? “Not at all. A large number of women identified with those stories and portrayals. Television made me who I am and that base has given me the freedom to do what I am doing today,” she says. ■

—Udita Jhunjhunwala