Kalki was in the city recently for Rajat Kapoor’s Shakespeare Comedy Theatre Festival. In conversation with City Express, she talks about feminism and her life mantra. Excerpts:
In your earlier interview, you said you say yes to most of the scripts that come your way. Is there any script/ role you wish you had said no to?
I do say yes to most of the scripts that comes my way and there is no way I am going to tell you which script I wished I had said no to... that’s not nice. I believe that you learn from your every script that you do, in some way or the other.
The film Lipstick Under Burkha has been denied certification by the censor board. Your take?
I believe that I have always said that instead of censor board, we should have a certification board. In democracy, I don’t believe we need censorship if a film is adult rated, it should be up to the choice of the adult whether they want to watch it or not.
Do you think Bollywood actresses would be comfortable doing roles where they need to sexually express themselves?
I think Bollywood actresses are comfortable doing roles where they can sexually express themselves. I think that there is just very little opportunity to do that in film and to do it in a sensible way.
Why do you think actresses shy away from identifying themselves as feminists?
I think actresses or people in general shy away from word feminism because they don’t know the meaning of the word and often, people think of it as negative word like it means male bashing or women are better than men or it is talking only about women’s rights. Technically the word feminism is the quality of the sexes, so it’s gender equality and I think most people are unwittingly feminist even if they don’t officially support the cause.
Could you tell me about your character in the film Mantra? What is your life ‘mantra’?
I play this character called Piya Kapoor and she is pretty normal upper middle class girl, who is a chef and wants to be independent, live her life but she is living under the roof of her father and has to deal with him and his conservative ways. There is this nice conflict that builds up there.
My mantra in life is this Japanese saying which says “Today better than yesterday, worse than tomorrow”. So, I like that idea that we can keep learning every day.
Could you tell us about your upcoming projects?
Apart from Mantra, there’s Konkana’s film ‘Death In The Gunj’ which is supposed to release in April. We don’t have a date yet. I finished shooting a film called ‘Ribbon’ by Rakhee Sandilya and the film is on an urban couple and the struggle they have bringing up a child while they both are working adults, you know the problem of maternity leave and the balancing both genders in a marriage and thinks like that. Also, I am shooting a web series in Goa right now called ‘Smoke’ for Eros Now.