At a time when her latest film Dasvi failed to impress at the box office and attract good reviews, Yami Gautam Dhar speaks about her love for her craft, her "indestructible self-belief" and an undying desire to play her game by her own rules. It is not for her to be seen at "the right place and the right time and with the right people." She'd rather let her work prove her mettle and leave it at that.
This year, Yami completes a decade as an actor. She started out with the much loved, Vicky Donor, a film that brilliantly tackled an extremely sensitive topic of erectile dysfunction. Post that, Yami's films might have been few and far between, but most of them have been extremely impactful. Take for instance, A Thursday, a Disney+ Hotstar release in which Yami plays a schoolteacher who takes her little students hostage while demanding to meet the prime minister. It was the first time the actress ever headlined a film. Last year—the year she got married (to director Aditya Dhar)— she finished working on seven films.
She already has a few more releases slotted for this year. She is almost on the last leg of finishing another film, Lost , directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, who helmed Pink. She plays a crime journalist in the movie.
There have been times when the actress did fail to make the right choices when it came to script selection. A few of her films failed miserably. "But that again has been an experience and a learning like no other," she says in the most self-assured manner during an interview to THE WEEK.
At a time when the success and impact of a film is weighed by its performance at the box office and its entry into the Rs 100 crore club, Yami considers the parameter to be unfair and unrealistic. "The first film to actually do a Rs 100 crore business was Ghajini and it has been so long already. So if that is the benchmark, I don't think that's right. A number of my own films, including Bala, Uri, Vicky Donor, Badlapur, Kaabil have done enormously well and we cannot predict which film works and which doesn't. This Rs 100 crore tag I don't agree with. Each film must be valued on its own merit."
What have been the most pressing challenges for her over the past years, especially as an outsider in Bollywood, an industry that is known for being conservative and preferential to its own? "As an outsider, you are not given many chances and you have to deliver with every film. Couple of years back when I started out, it did not come easy and my confidence today is very different than what it was back then. Hope was all I had. Things do not happen as fast as you would like. I had to open up my own creative horizons." Besides, for someone like her, "who is not a social networker," work became difficult to come by. "I was told that if I am not seen around, I will not get work. That I think it doesn't go well with me," says the actress who was born in Himachal, raised in Chandigarh and works in Mumbai. Excerpts from the interview...
You carried the film Dasvi on your shoulders. There have been negative reviews on the film too. How do you rate your own performance in the film?
I don't see it like that. I reacted to a personal comment that was made, it was not a negative review. Critical evaluation has always been there and we are in a creative field where perspective is everything. So, I always welcome constructive criticism. I am just happy that Dasvi came my way and I did my best to justify the character. There can always be a different way to perform anything. But what the director wanted from me as an actor as per the script, I did that by working hard. Also, it is not the volume of work that matters, but how different is one film from the other which is significant. You cannot really rate the performance. You know in your heart how you fared.
After ten years of having been there, done that, what have been your biggest learnings so far?
My very first learning is that the term Bollywood must be corrected. This term has begun to sound 'not right.' Let us call it the Hindi cinema instead. So, my take has really shifted. Patience and self-belief are crucial aspects. One's self belief can be put to test a number of times, but you have got to hold on to the very basic premise: the reason why you came here in the first place. I learnt that for me it is important to make a place for myself where I am not dependent on who my co-actor is; in fact it is regardless of that. My attempt is always to try to add something extra to this new age Indian cinema.
You have been very patient over the years having waited endlessly for an apt role to come by
There have been times when I have done films just because they became a source of income. In the sense, those films were work for me which was crucial at that time. I did not mind waiting for the right role to come by because it does take time, experience and a certain understanding. My first film, Vicky Donor, brought into sharp focus an unexplored subject for that time. I think I have always been willing and courageous to take chances. When Uri, which was a huge success, happened, followed by Bala, I got a platform once again to reinstate my confidence. Of course, there are times when you question yourself and wonder if everything you are doing is really worth it, but there are no definite answers. I respect the decisions that did not work out for me because it made me realise things I should not be doing.
Which kind of roles will we never see you do?
You will never see me be a zombie!
How do you choose your scripts?
If you go through my filmography, you will notice that I have mostly worked with very talented directors who are newcomers or who are into their second films. This means that it is always the script and the director for me. That is the only way to make or break it in the industry. Everything else follows. In the present times, the audience is informed and aware. Not just the actors, but even filmmakers need to break stereotypes by revisiting their modus operandi. In the Hindi cinema at the moment, when someone approaches a producer, the first question that gets asked is , 'Who is the hero or the actor?' Everything else revolves around that. But now the most important questions should be the script. Every genre of cinema today can coexist with others. I want to be part of stories that empowering, new-age, and emerge from different genres. The idea is to be fearless in the choices I make.