One of my favourite meta movies of all time is Vinod Chopra’s Khamosh. Made in 1985, it was a thriller with a Twin Peaks-y edge, bolstered by an all-star cast. Shabana Azmi and Amol Palekar played murder suspects. Naseeruddin Shah deadpanned as an inept cop. And, amid it all, was Soni Razdan, haunting the film as its own Laura Palmer.
36 years later, Soni turns up in another industry-set romp. Call My Agent: Bollywood doesn’t bear comparison with Khamosh; it isn’t halfway as funny or self-aware. Still, Soni saw it as an opportunity to revive a lost genre.
“The culture of glorifying actors is changing,” she says. “What’s fascinating about a film like Khamosh back then, or a series like Call My Agent now, is that you are seeing the people behind the so-called stars. You are seeing them have the same problems, like going to work with a baby. So it instantly creates a connection.”
Adapted from a French series, this is a show about four talent agents trying to save their company, after their boss checks out on a foreign trip. Soni plays Treasa Mathews, a veteran who prefers to go by ‘star maker’. It’s an intriguing role, but also awfully limited and sidelined. It is especially disheartening given Soni’s casting—the actor, a veteran herself, has seen the talent management industry emerge and evolve.
“It’s a different industry now,” she reflects. “It’s completely corporatized, organized. There were no management companies or casting agencies when I joined the industry. I was always upset about that. I felt I could have done so much more if there were people pushing me for stuff.”
This, Soni says, changed when her daughter Alia joined the movies. “Instantly, there was a talent management company she signed up with. They took care of everything. I was like, wow, that’s so cool!”
Representing this new age in the series is Aahana Kumra’s Amal. A compulsive hothead, she rounds on stars during meetings and takes her own co-workers to task. Her extended romantic track with an auditor (Anuschka Sawhney) is the second loudest thing in the series—first comes her anger issues.
Aahana feels this is an attitude attuned to the cut-throat nature of the industry. “The film world is extremely dynamic,” she says. “There’s no time to sit and mull over things. If you don’t act fast, a role or a project would go to someone else.”
“She is nicknamed Hulk,” jokes Ayush Mehra, who plays Mehershaad. As the conversation winds down, I ask the cast how weird it was to turn the tables. Surely, as actors, they’ve had to change their agents?
“It’s never to put anybody down,” Ayush maintains. “We opt with an agency because we want to get to a certain place in our careers. If that doesn’t happen, we change tracks. It’s all about finding somebody who understands your vision.” Call My Agent: Bollywood is streaming on Netflix.