A natural artiste, she morphs effortlessly into character, her reel alter egos making one lose sight of her real-life persona. That, all of us would agree, is the hallmark of a masterful performer. Yet, Tillotama Shome, who believes in detailed research and prep, simply says, “I’m here as an actor to serve the vision of the director.”
Early on in her career, the forward-thinking actor made the conscious choice to not sign projects that would pigeonhole her. “I don’t want to be imprisoned by any kind of description. I think that human beings are so fluid and our sense of identity is so dynamic that I would not want to be a prisoner of my own description…I’d like the flexibility of change.” So, even at a nascent stage in her film career, she unhesitatingly turned down roles that required her to clone her successful debut as Alice, the household help in Monsoon Wedding (2001).
The performer bides her time to pick a role that excites her, and her audience. The decision has paid off. Her performances in projects like Qissa – The Tale Of A Lonely Ghost (2013), The Night Manager (2023) and Lust Stories 2 (2023), where she has respectively portrayed a girl who is raised by her father as a boy, a pregnant RAW officer on the trail of an international arms-trafficking gang and a lonely voyeur who gets a thrill out of secretly watching the her domestic help engaging in moments of stolen intimacy, speak for themselves.
The 45-year-old artiste is less concerned with the screen time her character gets and more focused on a role “where I don’t know what I will do”.The scene in the short film Nayantara’s Necklace (2014), in which Konkona Sen Sharma’s Nayantara shows Tillotama’s Alka how to sip Chardonnay is unforgettable because of the interaction between the two women that subtly brought out the differences in their social backgrounds. Shome also displayed her acting chops in a brief but significant appearance as Mrs Ahmedi — a woman who studiously maintained her composure, even as she dealt with a personal tragedy — in Shanghai (2012).
The prolific amount of content on screen and OTT platforms has brought Shome to an interesting cusp in her career. She has stepped outside her comfort zone — the theatre and indie circuit — to collaborate with mainstream actors, as seen in The Night Manager. The nuanced performer — who states that she “literally got more work in my forties than in my twenties and thirties put together” — has also had the opportunity to play age-appropriate parts. For instance, in Lust Stories 2 which explores desire in older women.
So, the last few years have been profoundly satisfying for the actor who, by her own admission, was never signed on for her looks. Shome recognises that she does not fit the film industry’s ideal beauty standards but is completely confident in her own skin — “I think I’m very beautiful. But I had chickenpox when I was a kid, so I have scars on my face. I have crooked teeth.”
Right from the beginning, the camera has been her trusted ally: “It [always] felt like a very warm non-judgmental friend. It just watches, just observes. I would often be unaware of it; it was that comforting.”
Her quest for something new is unending. In the recently released Kota Factory Season 3, Shome makes her mark as the new chemistry teacher, who not only understands what the IIT aspirants are going through, but also — in her own way — spotlights the workings of the coaching institutes. “Every one [each character] is different from the other. The job for me is to find the similarities and then explore the differences,” she says.
Styling inputs: Asad Sheikh
Location: Black Frames Studios, Mumbai