If there is one Indian actor who never hesitates to experiment with as many things as possible, it is Kalki Koechlin. Last November, when I met her after the release of her film Ribbon, she was in the news for her slam poetry. This time around, her kitty is full with Smoke, the digital series about the drug cartels of Goa that was recently released on Eros Now; Made in Heaven, an upcoming series on Amazon Prime; and a play adapted from the Shakespearean poem Rape of Lucrece. To top it off, she has done a podcast series for the BBC about young adults in 21st century India. Excerpts from an interview.
What made you do 'Smoke'?
I think Goa has not really been portrayed the way it has been in Smoke. Of course, there is a whole glamorous side of Goa, the clubs and all of that. And then, there is the mafia running these places of entertainment, dealing in a lot of drugs. There is the narcotics and the cops who are trying to find out what is happening. There is also the political aspect—the involvement of the politicians in all this. I think that gritty, raw Goa has not been seen before.
The BBC podcast, Kalki Presents: My Indian Life, is different from what you have done earlier. You have actually spoken to people working for the good of society. How did that happen?
BBC was after me for a while and I was a bit reluctant because I had no experience in podcasting. When they sent me the profiles of the people they wanted me to interview, I just thought it was really interesting. I thought we need to do this. We need to celebrate the other people, too, and not just the celebrities—the people doing important work in all their different fields of life.
Were you comfortable interviewing these people?
Thankfully, having been interviewed so many times helped me to understand how to interview somebody else. No one wants to hear five controversial questions thrown at you. I was very open with them. I thought I would share information about myself; if you feel like sharing, you can, too. I find the stories really beautiful. Of course, there is a lot of research that went into it. Ultimately, nothing is more important than reaching some kind of a comfort level with the person.
Someone had referred to you as actor-activist in a recent article. Are you comfortable with that tag?
Tags come with the territory of being a celebrity. I think, as an artist, I do believe in looking into human issues, understanding society. Even to become a better actor, I need to understand human beings. I need to understand their behavioral and thinking patterns. That is very important to me. Ultimately, it does go hand in hand. I don’t particularly think that I am a very big activist. I do that activism through my work. But all of us, in our lives, can do that. We don’t necessarily have to join NGOs. If you just stand up for yourself, you are already being an activist.
It is not easy standing up though. Some days you don’t fight. Some days you are tired so you don’t want to fight. Some days, you fight more, and then there are times you go and see a therapist because you have fought so much. Life has its ups and downs and there is a time for everything. There is a time for speaking, and maybe there is a time for reflecting or looking inside yourself. There is a time for just accumulating knowledge and understanding things better. It is all a part of being human. I don’t think there is any clear cut [demarcation] that this is exactly how you should behave in a situation.
In the BBC documentary Bollywood’s Dark Secret that released earlier this year, you had mentioned that people in India are not comfortable talking about sexual abuse, and so the #MeToo movement would probably take time to reach here. Did you expect it would hit home so soon and in such a big way?
I think no one expected the movement to come in such a huge way. If that has been a surprise, I think it has been amazing that it has. It is really encouraging from my own perspective to see that people are speaking up. We are talking about patriarchy, which is everywhere. Most of all, it is in the home. And [when] we start questioning this, it will eventually lead to questioning patriarchy in the home, which is essentially where children are taught how to behave. It will make us a lot more aware. At least, in my case, what is happening is I am asking questions. Do we have such a body in our production, in our contract which allows us to make a complaint in a safe way? I think because of that, companies are taking action, and are coming up with ways to ensure that the future is more equal and safer.
I just got a contract for my play (Lucrece) that I am doing next month. It has come with a code of conduct and rules for anti-harassment. That is something very new. And a very practical and lasting thing. We will have a sort of sensitisation before we start our rehearsals.
On the acting front, you have quite a few exciting projects.
The play premieres in November end. It is about the rape of an honourable woman, Lucrece. Considering that we are talking about feminism and issues related to women, it is just very timely. Then, I have Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy, and Made In Heaven—both of which I am quite excited about.
