Movies and theatre apart, Kalki Koechlin is a normal girl utilising social media to its advantage. Team Viva finds out about her latent skills
Kalki Koechlin may seem an extraordinary woman but can be quite ordinary when required. like when she buys tomatoes from the roadside vendor. “I am lucky enough to have a good balance. I am not ‘so so’ famous that I can’t walk on the streets. I can still go and buy some tomatoes on the road. Maybe, two or three selfie requests. But that’s okay,” says the actress, who feels glad that she doesn’t get stereotyped.
The National Award-winning actress says that she doesn’t like to think about awards all the time as it should come as a “happy surprise” and that she lives for work rather than honours. A Special Jury Award went to Kalki earlier this year at the National Film Awards for her performance as a young woman afflicted with cerebral palsy in Margarita, With A Straw. Come May 27, she will again charm the audiences with her act in Waiting. Another award-winning performance.
“I don’t want to think about awards because it should be a happy surprise and not a disappointment that ‘Oh, I didn’t get an award’. I can’t live for awards. I need to live for work. My award is work. If I get more work from this film, then that's the biggest award,” says Kalki.
This is for the third time when Kalki Koechlin is working with a female director. Before this she has worked with Zoya Akhtar and Shonali Bose. According to her, “Women directors are really hard working and they have a very clear picture of what they are doing and what they want to do. I know that there are a very few female directors as compared to the male ones but I am sure that they will make their own space in the industry.”
The trailer of the film Waiting shows how her and veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah’s characters come together due to pain. It also depicts how his character remains aloof from social media unlike Kalki’s character. Where Shah is playing a philosophy professor in the film and Koechlin is portraying a social media advertising girl. When asked about what does she think on how social media is helpful to bring a change in the society, the actress said, “I think at present, social media is one of the strongest platform to share your views or to raise your voice against injustice. It is a powerful platform to communicate. There are several short films that release on social media and it gets thousands of views. It’s not like that it will bring the change immediately but at least it is a good platform to make a start.”
Koechlin shared that although she can somehow connect herself with the character, but it was difficult for her to portray the character of Tara Deshpande. “There are few things with which I can connect myself with Tara — spend a lot of time on social media — like I do. There are times when I have to spend time in the hospital when my family members are being treated, so there are a few things which I can relate to and not everything,” the actress pointed out.
Despite tasting success in Bollywood, she is still in love with the stage. “I always loved theatre. For me as an actor, it’s a place to practice your art. It’s like muscle. Some people need to go to the gym to make muscles bigger, I go to theatre to make my acting better,” she said and added that she is looking forward to flying to the US in July for a play.
Koechlin shared with us that she also has a documentary in her kitty. Is it based on the Jawaharlal Nehru University rowIJ “I am doing a documentary about India and the progress of our country... how the country has changed over the years. It just happened that I was in Delhi at that point (in March) when JNU march was happening. Somebody took a photograph of me and assumed that my documentary was about the students. But it’s not. We are still shooting, so I can't talk about it,” Kalki concludes.
with inputs from agencies