JOIN USLanguage shouldn’t restrict your art: Masaan actress
She has a long list of highly acclaimed movies and web series to her credit. From the television sitcom ‘Kya Mast Hai Life’, ‘Masaan’ and India’s first feature-length film shot on an iPhone ‘Zoo’ to the most recent ‘Made in Heaven’, actress Shweta Tripathi Sharma has made a name for herself as an effortless and versatile actor in the industry.
Shweta, who also runs the theatre company ‘All My Tea Productions’ in Mumbai, recently made her Tamil debut with Raju Saravanan’s ‘Mehandi Circus’ opposite debutant Madhampatty Rangaraj. A romantic drama, the film is the story of a girl from a travelling circus who falls in love with a youngster when they visit Kodaikanal. The movie hit the screens on Friday.
In a conversation with Surupasree Sarmmah, the actress talks about her preparation for the movie and her versatile body of work.
How did you prepare for the role?
As soon as I got to know that I would be doing the film, I started taking Tamil classes in Mumbai. I would understand the meaning of the words and also the emotions. I feel it is very important that even if the pronunciation is not a 100 per cent correct, the emotions need to be delivered right for the audience to be with you. After this, I travelled to Chennai where I had a workshop with my co-actors, director and writer. We used to spend six to eight hours every day preparing for our roles. We did the entire film without having a common language. Hopefully, there will be no complaints with the film (laughs).
Was language ever a problem for you?
Language is a big problem for me. I am a typical North Indian girl. In Delhi, sadly, one is not exposed to too many languages; English and Hindi are the only two primary languages spoken there. Tamil was a whole new ball game for me. However, as an artiste, I want to explore as much as I can, be it the platform, the medium or language because I don’t think language should restrict your art. I want more and more people to see my work, so I was very excited.
How is it different from any other love stories?
What attracted me to this story is its simple yet realistic narrative. I hope people will relate to this film. For me, a simple story is the best kind of story. The movie explores whether one can fall in love with someone who is constantly on the move for work; it is about dreams, family and love. It has many different layers, yet it is a simple story.
You are a NIFT graduate. How did you get into acting?
Being on the stage and in front of the camera always made me happy. However, I am glad I went to NIFT. It made me confident that I can do whatever I have set my mind to. What excited me about NIFT was creativity, I could use my imagination to create what I want to. But, acting was always there in me. In the last year, I did a theatre workshop for six months and realised that this is what I want to do.
Your filmography is versatile. How do you choose your script?
Subconsciously, I want my characters to be and look different from each other and from me. I want my personal life to be different from my professional life. My characters are strong and go into dark zones. I am not as strong as my characters, I really look up to all of them. But, I want to live a simple and happy life.
After working in all three platforms - television, films and web series which is your favourite space?
What I enjoy about web series is that we have more hours to tell the story, so the graph of the character is much more. But the feeling of a feature film is definitely very special. Having said that, I, as an artiste, don’t want to restrict myself to just one particular medium. I want to explore as much as possible. In fact, I want to do radio shows or record audiobooks.