ne moment she was screaming with joy on a college play’s success and the next moment she was still screaming. The only difference was that the expression had changed from joy to surprise and disbelief. She had won herself a role in Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding.“I was so taken aback that I became numb,” said 22-year-old Tilotama Shome, who plays the role of Alice the maid in the movie.
For this student of Lady Sri Ram College, where she is pursuing her Masters in English Literature, it was like a dream come true to being asked to work in Monsoon Wedding. “Not even a dream, it was more like a miracle, an unbelievable one,” said the rather attractive Shome. “I always knew I wanted to act. I had done college theatre, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be working with Mira Nair and with actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Kulbhushan Kharbanda,” Shome told NCR Tribune.
Shome, after the success of a college play, got an offer for a teleserial called Bhawar. As luck would have it, the casting director of Monsoon Wedding saw that particular episode of Bhawar in which Shome had acted.
Shome was then asked to audition for the role in Monsoon Wedding. And then the unbelievable happened. Mira Nair asked her to work in the movie. Shome’s first reaction was: “Ma’ am, I can’t work with you because I have my exams in June.” Nair told her that she did not have to worry, as the shooting would not begin before August. Shome walked out of the theatre pinching herself whether she was in a dream or was it really happening.
“I always used to joke around with my parents whenever they asked me what I would get out of wasting my time in acting. I used to tell them that one day I would get a very big movie. It was a moment captured in time when I walked in and told my parents about the role. You should have seen their faces,” said Shome.
Shome said even when she got the role she thought it would be a “chhota-mota” role. “When I got a mail from Mira that I was playing a major role and with actors like Naseer, Kulbhushan and Shefali Shetty, I fell off my chair.
She, however, is unaffected by her success. “There is no fame, not for me at least. I still travel in the U-Special, I still do the same things I did. I guess earlier no one ever looked at me, but now they look at me at least once,” she laughed.
Referring to her experience while working in the film, she said all the senior actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Kulbhushan Kharbanda were a great support to all newcomers like her in the movie. “Even Mira, she’s absolutely bindaas,” she said, adding, “In fact, just before the shooting started, Naseer held a two-week acting workshop for all of us. I think that helped a lot.”
The movie, which was shot in exactly 30 days, is absolutely related to real life. “It is so true. On the one side there is this middle-class family that is trying to arrange loads of money to wed their daughter and on the other hand there are these two lovers in the kitchen- the servants - who get married to each other just by giving a marigold flower,” Shome said, adding, “We all live with servants, yet we don’t see and accept what they feel just the way we do. No one has ever tried to look into their lives and what they go through.”
Shome said, “I loved working in the movie. But the only thing I am scared of is that I have worked with the best and anything next might be a letdown. Mira made things so easy, not only for me but also for each and every newcomer on the sets. But I am sure there are many great directors out there.”
Shome said she would not go on a signing spree if she were offered roles in other movies. The roles and the script of the movie have to be “creatively stimulating.” The making of the movie was a celebration for the entire star cast and for this soft-spoken artiste the celebrations have just begun.
