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 There is a thin line in melodramatic wayI really don’t know who could pull off Maqbool and The Namesake. I don’t watch many films, but just having watched those two, it speaks a lot for your talent.
Thank you. (My role in) Maqbool would be one of my favourite roles to play and I’ll always be grateful to Vishal (director Vishal Bhardwaj) for casting me in that role. It was contrary to the image I had — not the bad woman. But for him to conceive me in this role, that’s what pulled me towards the role. The fact that she was so bad, or grey — that’s why I enjoyed the role so much.
Not just bad, but evil. She was constantly plotting, she was a mistress, she was plotting against the man she was a mistress of, she was two-timing everybody.
She was a typical woman taking it to another level. But it was very complicating and tough for me. Sometimes I didn’t understand how to play her.
Give us an example of when you were really in a fix.
As we were not playing (our roles) in a melodramatic way, there was a thin line... if it had gone a bit this way or that, it would have become obviously bad.
Some of the scheming came out of insecurity.
There’s the part you actually see (her evil), and the part where you actually pity her — that helped the bad, or negative, part even out. I don’t know, because I found her head really messy. You’re standing up and judging the character, but for her, she’s just being herself.
Whichever way it ended, it would be trouble, there was no getting away with it.
No redemption.
That’s really interesting, because the roles you have chosen are completely different. One is negative, and scheming, and in which there is no effort to provide sympathy for the bad woman. In a typical Indian movie, the bad woman will make a sacrifice and people will feel sorry for her...
I never felt there was any need to justify (her actions), though it is nice to justify your bad actions.
Yeah, like a flashback that in her childhood she was used...
Yeah, she was exploited by whoever or whatever. But I think this is what makes a character more interesting.
Similarly, in The Namesake, you played a woman older than you. It’s a deglamorised role and you are not a deglamorised person, neither in personal life nor in your other movies.
I have done this before in Astitva, and many people said I was making a grave mistake by playing someone older. Now, when I look back at it, I can understand where they were coming from, because I was quite young at that time. I was playing those characters I’ve never been, those roles I’ve never gone through... I’m sure there were times I was playing these intense characters I couldn’t really understand.
Because you have not seen marriage, child, mother-in-law?
No. Also terrorism, suicide bombings. I was doing Maachis, Hu Tu Tu, and Astitva. I was doing these intense characters, which were like a springboard for me, which helped me grow as an actor, a performer... that was the amazing part of this journey.
Even Maqbool had some oomph, but the role in The Namesake was like a modern day Meena Kumari.
We made sure I looked old, with grey hair and lines on my face.
And almost always dealing with trauma.
But that was what the film was all about.
But you never had any doubts doing this film. You do a movie once in three years. Like, in between Maqbool and The Namesake, you didn’t do any mainstream movie.
No. I knew it was going to be a lot of baggage, with the book and the film. The book was already a success. With Mira (Mira Nair) making the movie, I knew something extraordinary was going to come out of it. I was very eager to experience working in an alien world and an alien film industry. For me, that was more interesting.
 So that was the bigger challenge.
That was very exciting for me. Also, the whole graph of the character, from the 1920s to 1947. She’s not just an old woman.
I’m glad you didn’t say 1947 is old.
It’s not. Forty is the new thirty, so they say.
And thirty is forever twenty.
So I’m twenty.
You’ve played a Punjabi many times. Many Punjabis think you are a Punjabi, many Sikhs think you are a Sikh.
That they do, and they get offended when I say I’m not a Sikh.
Yeah, you look like one, you talk like one, and sometimes you act like one.
Yeah, that’s because I’ve done a lot of Sikh roles.
Yeah, and with a lot of spunk.
Also, because I’m tall and I’m big.
You have never really morphed as a Bengali in mainstream, even though you have done a Bengali film.
Yeah, but you can’t get more Bengali in mainstream than in The Namesake. Mira was very clear visually how the character should look. She had a fixed notion. I didn’t agree to the curly hair, like the stereotype. But she was set on that, and everything worked out fine. I don’t know about my Bengali, but sometimes I would feel forced to speak in this accent. I hope and pray it doesn’t sound contrived or like a caricature of the Bengali accent.
Was it tough to morph into a Bengali?
Not so much, as I already had an introduction to Bengali, I have friends there, and I have played in a Bengali film.
• You have become a Tamil, a Telugu, and a Malayalee. You have played a Punjabi many times. So how is it different playing a Bengali?
They are very true to what they are feeling at that point of time. They are much more emotional, expressive, and vocal about what they are thinking. They are not afraid of what they think. I think this is because they have a rich heritage of literature, art, music, culture.
What was the toughest part of the change?
The accent. I took it on myself to perfect the accent. It was not difficult, but I was conscious of it somewhere at the back of my head as I’m not used to emoting in another language. And I couldn’t dub or correct the lines.
So this film was all emotion?
Yeah, from the word go.
Has any of the accent stayed with you?
For some days, but now I’m completely out of The Namesake. It’s taken me a long time. It’s been there in my life for almost two years. We started shooting in March 2005 and released the movie in March 2007.
• I remember, when I met Mira Nair two years back and I told her how wonderful your performance was in Maqbool, she said, ‘You watch her in The Namesake. It’s just out of this world.’
Mira is really generous with her compliments and her praise, especially with people she’s working with.
Your co-star Irrfan, he was also wonderful in both the films.
He is wonderful. We have a good exchange on screen, and we vibe well, and we work well together. But the good part of The Namesake is that we completed the relationship from Maqbool. That’s how I felt. In Maqbool it was incomplete.
• But you both were co-conspirators.
I was.
So was he. He was betraying his boss. You were manipulating him. This (The Namesake) was qualitatively a different combination.
Yeah, because The Namesake was so calming and relaxing as compared to Maqbool, which was exhausting. So I guess we are quits on our relationships on screen. It’s a pleasure working with him.
He’s also very underrated. Why does someone so talented remain so underrated?
I see there is very little relationship between talent and being recognised, or getting that platform for popularity. I think that’s true in all fields and every form of creativity.
But you see him catching up?
Definitely. He is in this movie called Metro. I’m really looking forward to that. I respect him as an actor.
One could see the chemistry between the two (of you). It looked like you just carried it from Maqbool.
Yeah, we look good together.
Tabu, you chose this venue (Mehboob Studios, Mumbai). I would have chosen Bandra-Worli Sea Link, with the Mumbai skyline...
I started my film career here when I was 11 years old. I gave my first shot here.
That was like 10 years back.
Yeah, it seems like a couple of weeks back. It was in Hum Naujawan, which was Dev Sahab’s film. He’s my mentor. He had a room here, which was his office-cum-dressing room. In my first schedule, I remember, I was nervous and didn’t know what was happening and my whole family had come with flowers to make me feel comfortable. Since then I have shot many films, but never has there been a moment when I’m climbing those steps that I don’t think of my first day shooting.
Movies were not new for your family.
But we were not so into it, as we stayed in Hyderabad.
You still stay in Hyderabad.
Sometimes, but now it’s mostly Mumbai. It’s so funny, because when my Hyderabad house was completed, I got more attached to my Mumbai house.
People keep on saying, ‘What’s with Tabu and Hyderabad?’
People say a lot of things about me and Hyderabad, so it’s okay. It was my dream to build a bungalow in Hyderabad. We used to live in a nawab’s haveli before shifting to Mumbai, where very square foot is boon, a blessing, compared to the place where we were living. It felt claustrophobic. So my dream was to make a big bungalow. I remember, Raghavendra Rao, the director of my first Telugu film, told me, ‘Promise yourself that one day you’ll make a big bungalow in Jubilee Hills.’ So I said, ‘Yeah’, but didn’t take it seriously. Only when I worked more in Hyderabad did the dream become more real.
So it was only a dream to build a house.
Yeah, it was something which had carried over from my first film. So now I’m done with it.
People have talked of boyfriends, marriages, near-marriages.
Yeah, everything is in Hyderabad. But the reason I come back is my friends. I have made great friends. Like, Nagarjuna is my friend. After we (my family) shifted, there was no real connection with Hyderabad. Coming back, I remember I was shouted at by a director.
Who was that?
I won’t take his name.
• But why did he shout?
I think I came 10 minutes late. I was doing two or three shifts at that time. I think I was 15 or 20 minutes late.
So he screamed at you for that?
Yeah. I was getting out of the car and he was standing right there and yelling.
Now, that won’t happen. People will wait for you.
I don’t make anyone wait. I have learnt a lesson.
You have seen a lot change. At 11, you made your debut, and then you went back to studies, and then you get all these kinds of roles, from funny to action to traditional to Maqbool to The Namesake. But how little work you do! I mean, it’s like they say, ‘Sau sunar ki, ek luhar ki.’ But what do you do in between?
Nothing great. Nowadays, I prefer staying at home and don’t want to get busy with anything. There was a time when I thought I had to fill something into my empty time. That was true at one point, but not anymore. I watch movies.
I know you read Paulo Coelho. But how much can you read?
Yeah, how much can I read! I meet my friends.
So what movies have you been watching?
I’ve been watching many ’70s movies. I saw Guide again. It had a huge impact for a couple of days.
Would you act in a Guide remake?
Any day. It was much ahead of its times, like Tere Mere Sapney.
All Dev Anand films.
Dev Anand and Vijay Anand. Even Hare Rama, Hare Krishna.
So why are you watching ’70s films?
I feel that was the golden era.
The golden era is always now.
Yeah, it depends on what you think is golden. Now, it’s the multiplex age. It’s a golden era for film makers who are not coming out with big star casts, big budgets. I’m glad it’s this way. I don’t know what it was about the ’70s movies. I think these movies gave you hope. It also makes you feel purposeful in some ways. Like Rang De Basanti gave you some purpose.
What is your next project? Are you looking at something like that, or a Guide remake? I would love to see you play Waheeda Rehman, but who do you think will play Dev Anand?
I don’t know who has the vision to make that (kind of) film, which speaks the truth and doesn’t really have to be hunky-dory.
After watching ’70s movies, what will your next project be?
I don’t have any projects in hand. I’m actually out of work. I’m just waiting for someone to discover me.
That’s because people don’t know what Tabu is up to? Maybe you’re in Spain, learning the language, or in Hyderabad, making another house? Maybe they are able to find a co-star who is tall enough to stand next to you. Is that why the next one is with Amitabh?
We match in height and it was fantastic. I could wear heels and do a romantic scene.
So for you to do that, you have to find a 62-year-old.
Yeah, I’m happy with Amitji.
The same thing happened to me in some function. Waheeda Rehman held my arm, and I told her I can tell my grandchildren I had Waheeda in my arms. So she said she was so many years old. And I said, ‘You could be 95 years old, but you’re Waheeda Rehman.’ So that’s your new movie...
Something I’m excited about. After a long time, I’m seeing my promos. It looks fresh and different.
Why?
The way it’s presented, the relationship between me and Mr Bachchan. It’s different.
Has your stature been a problem?
My height? I’d like to think not. But I don’t know if it’s a problem for heroes and whether they are not accepting movies with me (because of that). If that’s the case, it’s really sad. Then I wish I were shorter.
There are so many others who wish they were taller?
Yeah, but I wish I were shorter.
Salman (Khan) can wear heels, and so can Shah Rukh (Khan).
We can tell them that. We can suggest that to them.
So you have had a problem like Sushmita (Sen)?
It was a problem in the beginning. Nobody tells me, ‘X hero refuses to work with you because you’re tall.’ I haven’t been told directly. With me, it was an issue because I was not of the conventional height. I was embarrassed by my height and I had this problem since childhood. I was made to sit in the last row because I was the tallest. But Rishi Kapoor, my first hero, in Pehla Pehla Pyar, used to always correct me and tell me to stand straight. ‘Just don’t be embarrassed. Stand tall and be proud of your height,’ he’d say. So it took me couple of years to be comfortable with my height, but now I’m okay with it. But it doesn’t matter, and there are many girls now who are very tall. Shilpa (Shetty) is also tall.
Some are also fazed by your talent? Shah Rukh once said he wished he could cry like you.
My God, I don’t know what to say to that. I don’t think so. I think they are very gifted and talented.
Now that you have put yourself in a league of your own, will you rank your female contemporaries?
I don’t think there is any ranking, as such. I believe everyone is unique in their own way.
What do you like about the top three or four? Rani (Mukherji), Preity (Zinta), Priyanka Chopra?
Each of them is confident, competent, and who they want to be. Preity was very confident in Kal Ho Na Ho.
Who else could have handled Maqbool?
I can’t see anyone in that role after me having acted in it.
And The Namesake?
I don’t know. You should ask Mira all these questions.
Mira will take your name.
I think once it is done, it is difficult.
Of the recent movies, which ones have you liked?
Rang De Basanti.
Because of the message?
It’s the way it made me feel. I don’t know about the message. Everyone takes something different from every movie. It just lifted me.
The Namesake has got you international acclaim. Reviews say you are the new Julia Roberts. How does it feel?
It feels great, because I didn’t do it to get such a great response, or for where it will place me. The best thing is, I can detach myself from it, as it is happening far away from where I’m staying.
So do we see you spending more time in that world?
Not necessary. Depends on whether I get good work.
Well, we know you now. You’ll take your time. You’ll read The Alchemist 150 times and watch Guide again. Then you’ll make another great movie after that.
I really hope so.
It’s a rare talent — to be critically acclaimed and also be a box-office hit.
The whole experience of working in these films in amazing, and maybe that’s why it translates into good response.
Whatever you have produced, and whatever you will produce will be a masterpiece. So we wish you all the best. Just be yourself and stand tall.
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