“Today It Is The Time For Black Sheep And The Underdog In Bollywood”- Tara Sutaria

Jyothi Venkatesh

She sashays into the Banquet Hall where the interviews for the promotion of her forthcoming new film Marjaavaan are being held, draped sexily in a sari paired with a décolletage-flaunting satin blouse, which had been spotted on her current boy friend Aadar Jain’s cousins Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor earlier, making all the girls go green with envy and accelerating the adrenalin count in all the males instantly. This is her second interview session with the print and portals after her first interview during the promotions of her debut film Student of The Year 2 just three months ago.

Tara starts the conversation with a bold stance, unlike earlier when she was a little bit nervous. “Now I am more confident though I was a tad nervous the last time”, says Tara with a smile. Talking about her role in Marjaavaan, Tara says, I wanted to transform into Zoya the moment I heard the narration of Marjaavaan from director Milap Milan Zaveri. The best thing about Zoya is that though she cannot speak, she can hear. Zoya hails from Kashmir and ahs lost her family in the gun violence there. Zoya , with her mouth organ happens to meets Raghu who is always with his gun. Zoya tries her level best to ask Raghu to eschew violence and start spreading peace and harmony in life.

Going gag a over the plot written by Milap Milan Zaveri himself. Tara says that not many Hindi films have in the past had the hero set out to kill the heroine, except perhaps films like Baazigar in the 90’s and Machine in 2016, and incidentally both were directed by Abbas Mustan. “I too had been offered to play the role of the heroine in Machine by Abbas- Mustan but I had luckily declined the offer because I had to complete my studies then.

Tara asserts that she had to learn sign language as per of her preparations to get into the skin of her character of Zoya in Marjaavaan. “Not many are aware of the fact that there are Indian, British and American sign languages and each sign language has a different meaning and connotation to it. I learnt in the English language and then translated it into Hindi in my head first. There are multiple meanings to a sign language word in different sign languages. Milap Sir had written long winding sentences and I had a coach who used to come home every day to teach me after the shoot of Student of The Year 2 was over every evening and the first thing that I did was to learn the basics in English.

Talking ab out the film Marjaavaan , she says that it is different from the usual Hindi films and Rakul Singh Preet who has done several films in the South, besides Hindi has done an amazing special appearance in the film and it was a great experience to work with Rakul in Marjaavaan  as well as Ananya Pandey in Student of The Year 2. Tara is also equally excited about her role in RX100 with Suneil Shetty’s son Ahan. It is the Hindi remake of the popular Kannada film which has been tweaked to suit the sensibility of the pan India audiences.

Speaking at length about her career graph, Tara states that at the age of 13, she had turned a VJ with Disny Channel for a year and it was a fantastic experience and the transition from being a VJ to an actress has been very smooth. Tara adds, “My education did not take a backseat thanks to my parents who instilled in me that education is very vital if one has to succeed in life”.

Tara says that it is a great time for cross over films and adds that she is about to bag a cross over project and hence keeping her fingers crossed excitedly  for the same. “As I was busy with both Student of The Year as well as Marjaavaan, I had no other alternative but to let go of some interesting projects.

Tara loves the videos of the 60’s and 70’s and adores all the actresses of that era for the emotions that they set out to project in their films. “I do not at all connect with the millennials in general because I feel I am a little bit arty. I liked the way they sued to move their eyes in a tight close up and did not at all need dialogues to express themselves and also used to connect with the music then which was of a different level altogether.”

Tara confesses that her first love has always been the stage. “There is no greater reward for a performer than being on the stage live. NCPA and Prihvi are my two favorite haunts whenever I am in Mumbai. After the release of Student of The Year, I had to cover up my face with a burqa properly and go incognito to see plays in both the theatres but it is fun.”

 Tara confesses that she has still not at all understood the concept of being an outsider. “At the end of the day you are here to work, not to talk of your family. It has been different for Siddharth or me but I am still grasping and trying to understand how the industry is functioning. I have to come out of the shell and concentrate on my craft especially today as the audiences are embracing and accepting warmly all our talented actors like Rajkummar Rao, Ayushmann Khurana etc. Today the time of the underdog and the black sheep has definitely come but today you just cannot fool the audiences anymore and have to come up with interesting and also out of the box content, if you want your audiences to connect with your film instantly.”

I decide to tease Tara and ask her whether she has got over her crush for Siddharth Malhotra now that she is serious about Aadar Jain and she clams up, “You really cannot get over your crushes.” Before winding up the interview, I ask Tara in what way were Puneet Malhotra who had directed Student of The Year and Milap Milan Zaveri who is the director of Marjaavaan are different from one another, she said that Milap Milan Zaveri who she calls Mili affectionately is sweet, open and also honest to talk to and work with and has never ever shouted at her. Tara signs off, “Both Puneet and Mili belong to altogether different worlds and luckily for me, both have been very sweet towards me.”

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