In an industry where there is no one set rule to make a mark, actor Kalki Koechlin took that as a cue to carve her own path, filled with ups and downs, doubts and questions, to come up with a body of work that no other actor can match. So, if you sit down for a conversation with the versatile actor, you cannot possibly end it, not soon. She brings to the table not just insights from an industry which is as welcoming as it is exclusive; the truths that hide behind the most honest falsities, but she also sheds light on what could be done better. For instance, ask her if she has ever praised a movie that she has hated, and pat comes the reply, “Yes!” But no, she is not giving away the name of the film, “No chance!” she says, adding, “I sometimes say I couldn’t have done anything like this (referring to the film). I couldn’t have made a film like this! How did you manage?” Now, that’s brutally honest. “Wild,” she corrects.
At the Royal Stag Barrel Select Films Select Conversations, where Kalki discussed the future of short films, adventures of storytelling, discerning cinema for discerning audiences along with actors like Vijay Varma, Huma Qureshi, Jim Sarbh and filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh, we sat down to listen in. “Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films offers a bunch of really good quality short films to watch on the platform. They have very established filmmakers making films there as well as new names. So, it’s really just the go-to place for short films,” she says.
Afterwards, we engaged Kalki to take the discussion forward and ask her what are the conversations around cinema that she thinks should be had more. “I think that we need to talk about the writers and the creators a lot more. We have so many exciting stories to tell, but the writers are not supported enough. There is definitely a need for more recognition and financial support for them,” she asserts.
Before moving on to talk more about films and the diverse roles she picks, we ask her about the biggest role of her life — motherhood. “I think you become hyper-aware of what it is to nurture and to be around a small human being. It takes up all your energy and time and resources! It’s also an immense amount of love. It makes you very focused on what’s important in life because you have much less time to do it all,” she says.
Growing up in Pondicherry, Kalki perhaps never thought she would be in films some day. “I don’t think that I ever knew where I wanted to be!” she laughs, as she continues, “I just knew that I wanted to keep working.” But the stage was definitely her calling as her career graph has proved. Starting with theatre, she says, the silver screen was the destination because it was sustainable. “You needed to make money! We were doing theatre and I definitely couldn’t survive on it. It (the silver screen) was the need, in order to find work that’s going to keep bringing you more work,” she explains about moving to the big screen.
Making her debut as Chanda in Anurag Kashyap’s Dev.D, Kalki soon came to be known for her unconventional body of work with films like The Girl in Yellow Boots, Ek Thi Daayan, Waiting, Margarita with a Straw, among many others.
In fact, watching her in The Girl in Yellow Boots will make one wonder how a girl so young portrays such raw emotions so beautifully! No drama school can teach to emote beyond a point, right? Kalki replies with a smile, “I think we all have the gamut of emotions inside us. All of us have gone through enough to tap into it. Trauma, pain, anger, love — these are emotions we feel as human beings. It’s only about letting them go deeper into you. It’s not so much about putting on a character. Yes, of course, that’s the fun part, like putting on a costume and accent and all of that, but it’s actually about going deeper into who you are.”
Of course, Kalki has been through “ups and downs” as she shares, “There are times where I felt like, ‘Oh my God, I am never going to work again’, and there are times where I felt like, ‘Oh my God, it’s too much work’. I keep my head a bit calm, knowing that things keep changing.”
Post the release of Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, a coming-of-age tale about three friends, about social media and how it is affecting young people, where Kalki plays a photographer and girlfriend to Siddhant Chaturvedi’s character, the actress is “looking forward to more work,” and tells us that she is “shooting something now” in the South, and that means we will get to see her acting in the South! When? We ask excitedly! “Soon,” she replies.
Belonging to an industry that has its flaws (like any other industry) but does not want to address them, we take a chance with Kalki to see if she would be willing to tell us about something in the Bollywood industry that no one seems to direct one’s attention to. “I feel that we don’t have enough trans writers, or enough writers from the LGBTQAI+ community. We often want to talk about those subjects, but then the stories are written by a heterosexual! So, I think the industry should be more diverse,” the actress points out.
Sharing with us about what has influenced her choices in life personally, Kalki says, “I think everything that you grow up with; the fact that I have had a mixed life of being French and Tamilian and growing up in South India and studying in London — all of these things have an influence. The fact that I grew up with “very” French cinema, like classical French cinema, and with Indian Hindi cinema and with Tamil blockbuster movies. I really see all of that is somehow exciting to me.”
As we take a walk down the memory lane, Kalki gets lost in the lanes of Pondicherry once again, where she spent a lot of her childhood. “My memories (of Pondicherry) are of the ocean and learning to cycle on the boulevard, which is next to the ocean, and the ashram, the dalia porridge from the ashram. There is a famous French bakery — the Auroville Bakery. I used to get all these yummy French things from there, especially in the ’90s when you couldn’t get all that food anywhere else,” Kalki reminisces.
We couldn’t, of course, wind up the conversation without asking Kalki quick five questions to get to know her a little more.
Five things you didn’t know about Kalki:
In makeup, you can’t do without?
Mascara.
Your style mantra?
Wear your mood.
A tip for all mothers?
Just hand the baby over. It’s not all on you. It’s okay. Put the baby on the floor because nobody fell on the floor!
Who would you like to do your last film with?
Oh my God! This is a hard one. There are just so many people to work with. Maybe Jodie Foster. I really love what she did with the Black Mirror episode.
A person you have had a crush on for the longest time?
Rasika Dugal.
Royal Stag Barrel Select Films Select Conversations is streaming on YouTube.
rupam@newindianexpress.com
@rupsjain
