Tillotama Shome Talks About The "Battle To Be Reimagined As Anything But" Domestic Help

"Initially one didn't have the choice to say no", Tillotama Shome said, sharing her experience

Tillotama Shome is one of the most prolific actors in the country today. Despite proving her mettle in a range of roles, Tillotama Shome has shared in a new video that she has often been subjected to being typecast into certain roles in Bollywood. The actress, who has played a domestic worker with great aplomb in several projects such as Sir and Monsoon Wedding shared that she has often only been approached for the same type of character. In an interaction with Film Companion, she said, “You know when I came back to acting after going away for a few years I realised it was such an uphill battle to be reimagined as anything but a domestic worker or someone who didn't come from a place of privilege.”

“Initially one didn't have the choice to say no”, Tillotama Shome shared, explaining that she had no option but to accept the roles. She also added “There was no other work and one had to survive. But after some time, when the bank balance was enough to pay the rent, I had to reckon with the anger I felt…I'm not rich, I'm not poor, I'm the upper middle class of India because of my education so if I'm not poor why am I getting to play only poor parts? I'm not rich either, so give me rich parts also na. Anyway, it's fiction.”

Tillotama Shome shared her thoughts during the promotional interview for her latest project Lust Stories 2. The actress is seen alongside (Amruta Subhash) in the project.

About the segment directed by Konkona Sen Sharma in the anthology, NDTV's Saibal Chatterjee wrote, “The Mirror, which examines female erogeneity in a new light, sends the film into a tangled, twisted terrain as it examines carnal pleasure and its frequently puzzling manifestations. Konkona Sen Sharma's segment holds up a mirror to the inner worlds of two dissimilar women - successful and single professional Isheeta (Tillotama Shome) and her trusted all-purpose maid Seema (Amruta Subhash) - and probes the upshots of a piquant situation that arises when the former stumbles upon a startling scene when she returns from work one afternoon…Powered by two magnetic performances from Shome and Subhash, The Mirror maps the deepest impulses of the two women as they are drawn into a vicarious 'relationship' that stimulates them beyond their imagination and unlocks an ineffable degree of sexual frisson.”