From her take on daily soaps sticking to the same tried-and-tested formulae to an interesting insight from her debut film Kya Kehna, actress Nivedita Bhattacharya spills it all in an exclusive conversation with Cutting Shots.
It’s almost half past seven in the evening when I connect with Nivedita Bhattacharya. Despite a hectic working schedule, the actress is fresh as a daisy. What follows next is a freewheel chat where we discuss in length about various topics, ranging from how theatre has shaped her as an actor to why she took up Kya Kehna in 2000 when she wasn’t keen on doing films.
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with the ‘Bambai Meri Jaan’ actress-
Q. You began your acting journey with theatre back in Lucknow where you worked with some of the biggest names like Raj Bisaria and Surya Mohan Kulshreshtha. Today, when you reflect on that phase, what is that one learning from then, you believe, has shaped you as an actor today?
A. Me being an actor and where I am in terms of my craft today, began in Lucknow with theatre. A lot of the discipline of theatre has helped me to be the actor that I am today. The kind of discipline you need when you are in theatre, the kind of rehearsals required…there are so many things on stage that you have to improvise which is the basic part and parcel of being an actor. All these things have really helped me. I started doing theatre early and it has definitely largely contributed in shaping me as an actor today.
Q. In one of your previous interviews, you mentioned that a chance meeting with Makrand Deshpande during a reading for a TV show lead to a long working association with him. Now, he is somebody who is known to be quite spontaneous. He also says that when an actor is on stage, it is his moment to live. Do you feel that experience of working with him was like an added advantage for you when you stepped into television which is again a spontaneous medium?
A. Yes, very much. I had a long association with Makrand and as you rightly said, he lets you be. First of all when you are working with him as an actor, he just spoils you (laughs). He gives you the liberty and freedom. He lets you live your part and explore it as much as you can. He allows you to go to any length. Eventually, when you have figured all the avenues and everything and that’s when he kind of zeroes in on something and figures out where to call it a cut.
I met Makrand when I had already started my television journey. But, he has been a parallel part of my journey as an actor because I would still be shooting and come back for rehearsals post pack up. When I am not shooting, I am still rehearsing with him.
You called television an impromptu medium which I might disagree because we do have a bound script there. But when it comes to theatre, it’s a live medium where every moment is different every day. Today, the audience may react to something, tomorrow they might not give the same reaction to that thing. So, everything becomes variable when it comes to stage.
On the other hand, TV is not a live medium. You are living the scene at that moment but you have to just get it right at that point. If that doesn’t happen, you can give retakes. Of course, you are trained to give out variations and figure out what works and what doesn’t. The big difference between stage and camera is that you have the facility of giving a retake in the latter.
Q. By spontaneous, I meant that in television, there are times when you might get your dialogues at the last minute or there might be changes made to your dialogues at the last minute and the actor needs to be prepared for that.
A. I will agree with that. In television, yes, we do get a lot of things last minute and that’s where, as far as I am concerned, I give the credit to my theatre background that has added to me being more solid in my groundwork. So, I am able to grasp the situation faster. But of course, there are no last minute changes in theatre. You get the time to do your rehearsals there. It’s never like you get your script today and you have to do your show tomorrow.
Having said that. I would say that somehow the practice of rehearsing on stage has helped me a lot as an actor on camera because when I get my scenes, I like to do my rehearsals. It’s the shorter version of the extensive rehearsals that we have for stage. But the process is somewhere similar.
I prefer having rehearsals so then I know where we are heading. There’s always a difference when you have rehearsed a particular scene and when the camera is rolling and then you perform. At that moment, there is something which clicks inside as an actor. Of course, that moment is something which is just there for that very moment.
Q. You have starred in some of the most popular TV shows like Kundali, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, Kaahin Kissii Roz, Saat Phere, Gunahon Ka Devta, amongst others. When we speak about television, despite being a medium which is consumed by a large population and is influential, it’s a bit heartbreaking that it’s still looked down upon. These days, there is a chatter on social media about creativity dwindling in TV soaps. On the other hand, the makers defend themselves by saying the audience is not receptive to new changes. As someone who has extensively worked on this medium, what’s your take on it?
A. I would say that you really cannot blame the audience because for the longest time, you have been just catering the same thing to them. So, you are kind of conditioning them to accept a certain thing. If you offer them strong, good content, they are there to take it up. But the point is you are not offering them too much in terms of which is what you say, the proof is in the pudding. Suddenly with the advent of web, why is it that the content there has become popular? Why is that the people have lapped it up? For the simple reason that there is a novelty and they get to see different content there.
Having said that, I am not demeaning TV at all. I am what I am, thanks to that medium. All subsequent work that I have received is because of my work on television. When you are in a situation where you have the power to come up with different, strong content, you are still doing the same thing and rehashing the same formula. It’s like today, I could be wrapping it in a golden paper, tomorrow I will wrap it in a silver paper and put fancy label and call it a new gift. But, eventually, it’s the same thing.
It’s disheartening that we are just stuck to the formula what clicked many years ago. So, I wouldn’t just blame the audience. I think it’s just that we have conditioned them too much. See, if you start anything new, you need to give it some time. You can’t expect overnight success. You have to experiment if you have the power to tell the story and have the holding power. I feel we need to tell newer stories and wait. When you give them more choices, the audience will take it up.
When it comes to web, there’s no formula. You have everything there and it works. People have their own choices. They know what they like and what they don’t. The audience is the same. You are watching TV, you are also watching something which is an entirely different concept on web, and you have accepted both the shows. I don’t think we can blame the audience. I feel we have to be patient with them for sure.
The content on TV is reaching your bedrooms and drawing rooms every single day. It’s an influential medium and the audience is so addicted to it. I am sure if we come up with new content and serve it to them, they will take it up because they want to watch TV in their particular time slot.
Say, for example if on a x day, they see a content which they haven’t been seeing for years, they either might love it or reject it today. But if it continues, two or three months down the line, they are bound to like it if the content turns out to be strong. The television audience is very loyal to their time slot so they will be watching what you give them.
I think it’s high time we push the envelope. It’s great that some formula has clicked for a long period of time but come on, that doesn’t mean we need to stick to the same thing. Times have changed. Look at where women have been positioned in life today in the world. Now, they have a lot of things to do. There’s more to her than just being a wife or a mother cooking and fixing meals for the family. That’s the women of today. We need to look at the larger picture.
There’s no harm in being a homemaker but then what else apart from that? A homemaker doesn’t just fix meals or see that there’s salt in the food or make someone’s life miserable. There’s more to being a woman.
Q. Do you think the TRP game also limits an actor from stepping out of his or her comfort zone and they choose to stick to the same tried and tested formulas?
A. Yes, that is something which has been my dilemma for a very long time. As an actor, the TRP game doesn’t really limit me. The TRP is actually related to the production house and the channels. The writers write what clicks. As an actor, that has been a challenging part for me because when you are given a certain character, there’s a certain arc to it from the onset and suddenly, one fine day, your character is tweaked because the TRP demands it a different way. It’s a jolt because that’s not what you have planned to do and your character was supposed to be. These are the things which limits an actor’s craft.
For anything to work, you need to have the beginning, the middle and the end. Here, in television, we don’t know that. It’s so open-ended. When it is suddenly very TRP-driven, I am kind of jolted. There have been a couple of times where my character was made to behave in a different pattern according to what the TRP demands. But then, that’s the plus and minus of television.
Q. A lot of actors from television, when they make their transition to the big screen often talk about how the industry often has a myopic view about them. Some don’t like to be categorised as TV actors, not in a bad way, but because they believe this label makes it difficult for them to break the barrier between mediums. Did you ever had to battle this perception when you dabbled in different mediums?
A. Definitely, yes. Like a lot of times, there’s a prefix to your name, which is not actor but TV actor xyz. I believe an actor is an actor. You can’t say, a TV actor or a theatre actor because most of us including me have dabbled in different mediums. It’s just that my work on television got more noticed and I have been there on that medium for a long time. All this doesn’t necessarily make me a TV actor. At the same time, I have been equally dabbling in theatre and doing films which excite me.
These things are diminishing slowly. The point is you won’t call an actor working on web a ‘web actor’ because it’s a new medium. Television has been there since centuries so it gets easier for you to get bracketed as a ‘TV actor’ or a film actor. I personally feel an actor is an actor and they are dabbling in all sorts of medium even if one isn’t doing films. If a theatre actor hasn’t done films, you just can’t call him a theatre actor. He might just be waiting for the right role to come his way in a different medium and he will deliver.
So, these preconceived notions do exist. In some cases, if your work gets noticed, it blurs the line. Speaking about me, I had also heard such labels. But in my case, thankfully, these brackets didn’t limit me from doing other mediums or receiving work from different mediums. It wasn’t such a drawback. But yes, I also heard these prefixes for me for sure which has diminished now. They didn’t hamper me from getting work because I guess my work spoke for me. I believe if your work gets noticed, then it will lead to subsequent projects.
Q. You made your big screen debut with Preity Zinta starrer Kya Kehna in 2000. How did that film offer come your way?
A. When I did Kya Kehna, I was never looking at doing films. I did that movie not as a film project because I was very happy doing great content on TV. At that point, I did Kya Kehna only for experience because I am a huge Kundan Shah fan. I have grown up watching his cult films. When you get a call from Mr Shah’s office to be a part of his film, why would you say no to it?
I wasn’t even bothered about knowing my part in the film because I didn’t have those stars in my eyes about doing films. I was being offered good roles on television. I was very satisfied with the kind of work I was doing there at that point of time. So for me, to do Kya Kehna was never a thing about using TV as a stepping stone to enter films. It was my conscious decision to stay away from films and stick to TV because the latter was offering very exciting content at that point of time.
I did Kya Kehna purely for the love for one man- Mr Kundan Shah and I thoroughly enjoyed that. So, I did that film just for experience and had a blast shooting with him. He was such a thorough gentleman. He was an intelligent and wonderful man. I was offered Kya Kehna when I was just beginning my career and it has just only enriched my life. If at that time, Kya Kehna was being made as an one-hour episodic TV, I would still take it up.
While shooting for Kya Kehna, I was still busy doing TV. In fact, that film had two schedules and at one point, there were some shift in the shooting schedule and they needed my dates for a latter time which I had already committed to my TV projects. I had a lot of tough time juggling my TV dates with that film and I was like, “Look guys, this is not even my age to do that. Let me focus. What am I doing?” (laughs). But obviously, when you are in a project, you are stuck in a continuity, nothing against them. Sometimes, project dates do go haywire.
After Kya Kehna, nothing changed for me because I was very clear, at that point of time, the kind of films that were being made, I didn’t see myself fit in over there and I was very happy with real good stuff happening on television. I had grown up seeing good content on TV. When I was doing TV, I was getting meaty parts and hence, I stayed away from films.
Gradually, I could see myself fitting in films because gone are the days now where there’s only central character in the frame. That was the kind of stuff which was being made earlier. You would have a hero, a heroine and rest everyone around them. Even the heroines would hardly contribute to the story apart from looking gorgeous and singing great songs on good locations. For those who chose that, that’s great. But for me, that was never my career choice. I wanted to have more meat and dig my teeth into deeper stuff.
But now with the onset of new-age cinema with such good stories with multiple tracks being told, there is not just one person who is heading the show. You have multiple characters and they are all intertwined. They are all together taking the story ahead. Every characters is well defined and they are all putting in their bits to make one film’s whole story. I am excited about the kind of cinema that I am a part of or that I will be in the future.
Q. Long back, you and your actor-husband Kay Kay Menon were supposed to do a play called Paanch Budhe Bargad which unfortunately never took off. But then, you both did finally end up working together in the web series Bambai Meri Jaan. What was your reaction when you learnt that you are going to share screen space with him?
A. So, this Paanch Budhe Bargad play was not just with me and Kay Kay. It was a play which was to be directed by Makrand Deshpande at that point of time. There were four-five more characters in the play. Actually, that was when I met Makrand during one of my readings for TV. That was my first encounter with him. Makrand was writing this play at that point of time. He told me about it and asked me if I was interested to be a part of it. I said ‘yes’. I had just shifted to Bombay and was looking at meeting theatre people.
So, Paanch Budhe Bargad was that one script because of which I met Makrand and through him, I met Kay Kay (laughs). But I guess that play was supposed to be in my life for this very reason. That play never saw the light of the day. Something or the other kept going wrong but by then, I had made some great friends with Makrand, all the actors and Ansh theatre group. Till date, we are friends. Thanks to that one play, I met so many people and it’s a very intrinsic part of my journey of my life today. Not only Kay Kay but also all other friends that I made at that point of time.
And yes, then I and Kay Kay finally worked together in Bambai Meri Jaan. Though we had been paired together for the first time; thanks to Shujaat, Kay and I had worked together once earlier on TV for Last Train To Mahakali which was made for Star Bestsellers. This was long time ago and we were not paired together. After many years, we finally collaborated together for Bambai Meri Jaan.
Q. Do you and Kay Kay discuss work at home? Do you exchange creative ideas and offer feedback to each other?
A. Most of the time, our discussions are all related to work (laughs). That’s because it’s our work which brought us together. We have so much in common that we end up talking about it. It’s not only about his or my work. There are so many facets to our profession. We talk about every intrinsic part about it. That’s great because our interests and professions are the same. Of course, we are each other’s critics and I do look forward to his criticism a lot and so does he. We have a very healthy equation which is very exciting. I look for all his opinion on my work.
Q. I recall you talking in one of your interviews about your acting process. You said that you first try to deeply understand what the story is trying to tell and then explore how much of it can you drink. Is that something that you follow even now or has that changed over the years?
A. That hasn’t changed. As you grow, you figure out the different routes that you can take but the basic funda remains the same. You read the story over and over again. You see what your character is supposed to do in the story, what the director and the writer wants you to contribute to his story and how you can take it ahead.
Theatre has taught me that. It has taught me to be thorough with the script that you drink it. Once you have had your portion, when you are on the stage, you should be free-flowing. That’s the formula that I try and implement even now in any form on camera; be it for films or TV. The basic format remains the same. You try to discover different aspects. First gulp it and then figure it out.
Q. On a concluding note, if you had to recommend three must-watch films to our readers, what would those be?
A. It’s difficult to pin-point just three must-watch films. There are many. But, Life Is Beautiful is one film that definitely comes to my mind every time when I think of a film that touched my heart. That film just moved me. I can go to that movie anytime or maybe I would not want to go because every time I visit that film, it touches me. It’s painfully beautiful. That film has left a deep impact on me. Of course, there are more films. But whenever someone asks me about a good film, this one immediately comes to my mind.
In Indian films, there’s Satyajit Ray’s Panther Panchali. There are Hrishikesh Mukerjee’s films. I would say it would be a crime to just pick three films (laughs).
