The Accidental Actor: Tillotama Shome

This crossover actor' has been the toast of the international festival circuit and the poster girl for independent cinema in India, so it's not surprising at all that Tillotama Shome is now raging in the OTT arena too. We catch up with her on all things cinema

- Ananya Ghosh

There are movies you like, movies you marvel at, and then there are those rare few movies that keep haunting you even years later. For me, Anup Singh's film, Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost (2013), falls in the third category.

Although the poignant movie had stupendous performances by the lead cast that included Irrfan Khan, Tillotama Shome, Tisca Chopra, and Rasika Dugal, it was Shome's nuanced and even heart-breaking portrayal of Kanwar Singh - a girl raised as a boy by her father and then married to another woman that has stayed with me for almost a decade..

"Qissa is an incredibly important film in my life. Working with Anup was the acting school I never went to. He has given me tools that I can carry to any film I do. His process is centred in his deep love for human beings," says Shome, who won the best actress award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival for the same.

But then, Tillotama Shome had established herself as a powerhouse actor from her very first outing as Alice, the demure help of the Vermas in Mira Nair Oscar-nominated 2001 film Monsoon Wedding.

Like many in the industry, she became an actor by chance. She was born in Kolkata to Anupam and Baishakhi Shome. Since her dad was with the Indian Air Force, she grew up in different parts of the country. "We were moving from one place to another every few years, forgetting a language, and learning a new one," recalls Shome. "Most of our time went in playing in the park or climbing trees and reading books. Television was limited, and my parents used to take us out for one English film once a month when we moved to Bangalore. That was the extent of our exposure to cinema," she reminisces.