When you talk to Shweta Tripathi, you wish you could capture some of her energy, bottle it up and sell it as magic potion. The effervescent actress who has gone from strength to strength –winning best actress at IFFLA in April (for Haraamkhor) and walking the red carpet at Cannes in May, is now all set for her nationwide on-screen debut this Friday. As she’s packing for the promotional tours, sifting through clothes lying all over her house, she talks to us about Masaan and what it’s like to be a rising star on the horizon.
How does one feel when they are a few days away from their big-screen debut in cinemas across the country?
Have you seen the song ‘Tu Kisi Rail si’? (Yes) And the balloon in that song? (Yes). I feel like my stomach is full of those balloons! You know, there’s so much happening right now. We’re not used to this –interviews and photo shoots back to back; thinking about what to wear, who you’re wearing, what time do you have to be where! There are so many things to think about that the real emotion takes a back seat! When somebody tells me that your film is coming out in a week, then suddenly there’s a rush -“oh my god! oh my gooooodddddd!”
“Love is a beautiful thing, and how does it matter where one is born, which family one is born into? How is that anybody’s fault?”
Tell us about your character Shaalu Gupta from Masaan?
Shaalu Gupta is a well educated, upper-caste girl in college. She’s very self-assured and confident, even though she lives in a small town. She’s very pure. And she’s in love with a lower-caste boy, which, in her head, is not a problem. Love is a beautiful thing, and how does it matter where one is born, which family one is born into? How is that anybody’s fault? She falls in love for the first time, and this happens to all of us -there’s no logic or practicality in it -what the boy does, how tall he is -you don’t think about that. When love happens, it strikes you literally like the cupid’s arrow. The beauty is that it’s a small-town love and so it’s unlike an urban setting. In big cities, things are usually very vocal and the romance has been lost somewhere –when you can just pick up a phone and call or text somebody to meet up. But here, letting go of a balloon, is a way of saying ‘I love you’.
Do you personally relate to the social stigma that Shaalu and Deepak have to face?
Personally, I’ve never faced it, but I know that it happens all around me. For example, I know that tomorrow, in case I fall in love with a lower-caste boy, even if my family accepts it, society will keep telling me that there’s something wrong. You crossed the line; you shouldn’t be doing it. Society is like an anchor that’s always pulling you down. It’s that unwanted weight in your life.
“Society is like an anchor that’s always pulling you down. It’s that unwanted weight in your life.”
Was it easy to fit into the role of a girl from Benares? What went into your homework?
First, we had to start thinking in Hindi. We’re so used to talking in English and watching English films that we even think in English. Shaalu is a lot into Hindi literature and poetry. So I made a list of writers and poets that Shaalu would read –like Bashir Badr, Akbar Allahabadi, Mirza Ghalib. Varun, our writer, guided me through it and I started reading their books and made a very conscious effort to stop watching English cinema and listening to English songs. I think that every character is an extension of yourself. The similarity may be 5% or 20% or 80%. It’s your job to increase that number. You have to become closer to the character and further away from your real self. So I started living like Shaalu would. I also started talking to the girls who were playing my friends in the film, much before filming began. They are from Benares and they’re in college. I wanted to hear about the things that excited them –to get a gist, a flavor of their life.
Could you share one memorable moment during the making of the film?
(Thinks) Yes, You know, Vicky didn’t know how to ride a bike. And there was a whole sequence where we had to be on a bike. So I told Vicky, “Well! You better start your lessons right away because I’m not sitting on that bike with you anytime soon!” (laughs) And you know, it had to be on the highway! One: you’re new to riding a bike, two: there’s someone sitting behind you, three: you’re on the highway and four: you have a camera on you! I was just pleading everyone not to distract him. And to our surprise, some of those scenes were done in as little as 2 takes. We didn’t even know how because we were focusing on so many things, other than the filming.
Also Read: Living the Celluloid Dream – Meet Masaan’s Vicky Kaushal
“Just seeing the Cannes logo before your film – whenever i think of that moment, I feel this rush of excitement. When we received that standing ovation after the film, we were just stunned and didn’t know how to react.”
We have to ask you about Cannes. Actors would give anything to have that kind of exposure and experience at any point in their careers, let alone in their very first film. What was it like?
Those 10 days were the best days of my life. You know, after winning the best actress award at IFFLA, I went on a road trip from LA to San Francisco. And one morning I woke up in Santa Barbara to this message from Neeraj Ghaywan that we’d made it (to Cannes). He said “keep it to yourself because it’s not been officially announced”. And I wanted to shout out and tell the world! At Cannes, Richa, Vicky and I were watching the film for the first time. Just seeing the Cannes logo before your film – whenever i think of that moment, I feel this rush of excitement. When we received that standing ovation after the film, we were just stunned and didn’t know how to react. That was so moving and emotional for us. After that, there was a second screening which we didn’t go for. But we saw a photograph where the line was so long that people were on the road. These are the small rewards that we will always cherish. Oh, and being invited to the same parties as Michael Caine and Jake Gyllenhaal! I just felt like it was a dream.
Also Read: ‘Mann Kasturi Re’ is the soul of Masaan – Richa Chadda
If Shweta Tripathi wasn’t an actress, what would she be?
A very unhappy person! I just had to be an actress. Because the happiness that I get out of acting -being in front of the camera and being on stage –nothing comes close to that. I remember my dad asking me when I was a child, “What do you want to be?” I was just thinking, thinking, thinking and in the end I thought I’d cracked it -“I just want to be happy”, I said. Obviously nobody was satisfied by that answer. They asked, “Yeah, but what does that mean?” And I said “It means, I’ll do whatever I want to do.” And it had to be this.
Also Read: En Route to Stardom – IFFLA Best Actress Shweta Tripathi
Shweta Tripathi won the Best Actress award at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, 2015 for Haraamkhor. She is also a theater artist and runs a Mumbai based theater group called ‘All My Tea’ productions. Masaan releases in theaters nationwide on Friday, July 24th 2015. It won the FIPRESCI Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes Film Festival, 2015.
