Films, TV, theatre, and now OTT, Ratna Pathak Shah has graced all kinds of mediums in her almost four-decade-long professional journey as an actor. While her portrayal of Maya Sarabhai, a snobbish socialite in Sarabhai vs Sarabhai earned cult status over the years, she did a splendid job as buaji in Lipstick Under My Burkha.
More recently, she was seen essaying the role of a mother (Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, Hum Do Hamare Do, etc.,) but noticeably, most of them aren’t overly-emotional as Bollywood has shown for decades. As she comes on board as an industry supporter for BAFTA Breakthrough India, we speak to her about the mentoring programme for new talent, and more.
Excerpts:
Tell us about your role as a BAFTA Breakthrough India supporter?
‘Supporter’ is the keyword here. I am helping to get this programme across to the largest number of people by lending my voice, since it is a useful platform for those who want to train themselves and enter the [entertainment] business as well as for those who are already here but want to improve their skills or explore new avenues. Besides, when we think of the industry, we think of actors, at most filmmakers, producers or music directors. But here’s an opportunity for a costume designer to think differently, for a cinematographer to ask for interaction with other people. It is a chance to learn the business of film, OTT, and TV as an industry that exists because of many talents.
How has OTT shaped our industry?
We are still in the process, so it is hard to take any final call on it but what one is seeing immediately is that there is a greater focus on stories. Scripts are being given the due that they always demanded but never got. So, that’s step one. And because of the kind of stories that are being told now, the kind of people are also changing. The actors that are coming into the business are much more proficient in their work than people I remember working with as a younger person. OTT has had a lovely run for the last two years with no competition from the big bad wolf—the Hindi film industry—which is back to flexing its muscles.
You once said in an interview that you haven’t explored yourself fully as an actor?
I don’t want to ever feel that I have done everything that I wanted to do as an actor. I want to stay hungry, although it becomes harder to stay hungry as you grow older because so much of ‘been there done that’ stuff comes your way. I would like to play contemporary, real Indian women. The fact that I have the chance to live lives I otherwise wouldn’t, is the real pleasure of acting. I could play a murderer and yet never have to go to jail!