Actor-director Konkona Sen Sharma talks about the overwhelming response to Neeraj Ghaywan’s film Geeli Pucchi, one of the four stories featured in Netflix’s Ajeeb Daastaans which talks about Dalit rights and the LGBTQ community. Excerpts from an interview with Lachmi Deb Roy.
Making ‘Bharti Mandal’ look so real in Geeli Puchi
I hadn’t done something like this before. But I have seen some performances and they deeply affected me. In 2016, I watched Below Her Mouth, a lesbian love story in which an actress called Erika Linder played the butch character. Her performance stayed with me and I think somewhere it really inspired me. Four years later, I got this role and I could really relate to that character. Another film that is very close to my heart is Boys Don’t Cry by Hilary Swank. So, the precedent had already been set in my mind and I have already seen portrayals like this.
Again, I have also seen many women like Bharti Mandal in real life. I think we have all encountered women like her though we don’t see them much on screen. Besides, Neeraj Ghaywan is a fabulous director who wrote a very well fleshed out and nuanced script. So, this made my work easy. Also, we had a lot of people in the crew from the queer and Dalit communities. All of these helped me in making Bharti real.
Playing the Monsoon Date
That was different, though both the characters are from the LGBTQ community. But within the LGBTQ community there are so many layers, spectrums and so many different kinds of identities. The characteristics of both the roles are very different. In Monsoon Date she had already transitioned.
Being a child actor and being Aparna Sen’s daughter
It was not just my mother who was an actress. My entire household was into art and culture. In fact, my entire upbringing revolved around cinema. My grandfather, Chidananda Dasgupta, was a film critic. He directed documentaries, feature films and was also a film historian too. He co-founded the Calcutta Film Society (CFS) with Satyajit Ray. My mother is a film director, actor and editor of a magazine. So, I have actually seen this life since I was a kid. I have been going to studios and seen shootings since I was a child. I have absorbed so much from my family that I feel I come from a huge position of privilege. So, it was very easy for me in many ways. And all of this influenced my upbringing, my taste, my aesthetics and my understanding of cinema hugely.
Choosing the right films
I have been lucky that I have been offered some great roles and very different kind of roles. Now that I am an older actress, roles are very limited. But of late I have got some very exciting roles like in Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare. Earlier, I would get to play women who are very strong or women of substance or women who are very morally upright. But women don’t have to be like that all the time. I would like to play women who are irresponsible and who make bad choices. Now I am happy to play such flawed characters because those are very real depictions. I do only those roles which somewhere engages me and I find a reason to do it. I try to find a reason when I say ‘yes’ to a film.
Relating to the roles that you play
I see how I can relate to the characters that I play. I try to find empathy for my character and I try to find some elements of that character in my own life. Often, I will tweak my real life around the experiences of my character. If my character is supposed to be somebody who is upset or is in anguish, even if I am not in anguish in real life, I will tweak and manipulate circumstances so that I am also going through similar experiences like the character I play.
You never wanted to be an actor
Yes, I never wanted to be an actor. Since my mother was a mainstream actor and I used to sometimes accompany her for the shoots. When I was four my mother was shooting for a film. They needed a little boy for a role. So, they cut my hair and put me in the film. And I was very happy to be with my mother. I was always told that I am a good actress, though I never took anybody seriously. Somehow it happened to me and I eventually accepted it. I consider myself to be very blessed and privileged.
What next
I am doing a show called Mumbai Diaries for Amazon Prime, which will be on air soon. Then there is another film that I have done with my mother, Aparna Sen, called The Rapist along with Arjun Rampal and Tanmay Dhanania. It is a very unusual, hard-hitting story of rape and its aftermath.
On Bollywood
I don’t feel like a mainstream A-list Bollywood actor. I don’t even know if I have made it in Bollywood. I just enjoy my work. I consider myself a working actor with a normal life.
