'In this profession, no two days are the same'

Candid talk

There is no personal life left once you get into this profession which hurts me a lot. Ask me about my work and acting but not my personal life. It is nobody’s business. Everything about me is being sold and it affects me. People ask me to accept it as a part of my job but I can never be happy with it. I don’t think anybody can. It is depressing to see how people enjoy it,” says Tabu in an exclusive interview with Metrolife.

The actress appreciates the goodness some showed to her, it helped her continue her journey and maintain the trust in people.

“Small things which people did for me allowed me to go on and help not lose faith in people. For example, it was after I did the Tamil movie Kandukondain Kandukondain, Rajiv Menon, the director, gave me double amount for which I was signed. Nobody has ever done that. And the reason he gave was ‘because you deserve it’. Similarly, while shooting for Hum Sath Sath Hai, one day I told Sooraj Barjatya how we used to have bajre ki khichadi. From the next day, he brought khichadi every afternoon for lunch. Doing all this was not at all important for them, but they did it.”

The 44-year-old actress acknowledges that cinema has now become an inevitable part of her life. She enjoys cinema more as an audience than by being a part of it.

“Cinema is entertainment, enjoyment and holiday for me. We used to watch films on Saturdays or Sundays and that was the biggest picnic recreation for us. And it’s still the same. I don’t like watching films which I can’t understand or which drag too much or fails to involve me. I’m more of an audience than a part of cinema. I don’t know whether it has become a part of me or I’ve become a part of it. But this is my world, I have seen this world and lived it,” says the Padma Shri recipient.

Tabu was critically acclaimed for her roles in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool and Haider. She was considered an integral part of Haider in which she played the role of Shahid Kapoor’s mother.

“Everything about Haider was new and different. I started looking at everything in a different way. It was the first time I played such a character. The whole experience was a landmark for me and I would love to work with Vishal again. He has given me the two best characters I have ever played. I think those were also the best written characters by Vishal ever,” says Tabu, who will be next seen in Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor starring Katrina Kaif and Aditya Roy Kapoor, releasing February 12.

Tabu, who is very selective about the assignments she takes up, believes that her journey has been full of ups and downs. She suggests that one should give up the idea of perfection and make one’s own definition of it.

“In this profession, no two days are the same. If I sit and think how has my journey been, I would not be able to get a hold of it. In my career of 25 years, I met hundreds of people, but it never seemed like a long journey. I feel it has just started.”

Meanwhile, on being asked what she would have been if not an actor, Tabu says, “I wanted to be an air hostess because I thought I would get to see the world. I had applied for it and also got a call, but by then I had started shooting for Prem. However, since the last five years, I have been quite curious to know what other than acting I am capable of doing.”