Under the glow of the neon, she looked radiant, almost luminous. Before trooping into the greenroom, we had been drawing a mental picture of this Indian girl of French origin, who speaks fluently in Tamil and is making great headway with her Hindi, wondering what this famous lady would be like. After all, Kalki Koechlin has made many heads turn with her portrayal of Chandramukhi in Anurag Kashyap's 'Dev D'. But once she greeted us with a smile, her unassuming yet vibrant persona made our trepidations vanish. Casually dressed in a pair of jeans and a black tee, she was hastily clearing the sofa of the props, costumes, bags, make-up kits to make room for us to sit and have a chat.
Kalki was recently in the city with Anurag Kashyap's stage production Skeleton Woman, co-written and performed by her and Prashant Prakash, presented by Scullers at Kyra.
Kalki has been actively involved in theatre since 2002, when she went to the University of London to study the stage craft. "I was part of a group called Theatre of Relativity in London, but there, it is still the big-budget traditional musicals make the standard theatre and that is limiting to what they call fringe theatre. You really struggle, financially too, if you experiment. In India, there is more scope for doing new kinds of work," she said.
So Kalki, who loves to explore new stuff (and hates the winters abroad), was drawn back to India. She is an intuitive and focused actor, and the 'Skeleton Woman' came alive with her expressiveness and Prashant's emotive performance. One would wonder what made Kalki, whose passion lies in acting, take up the pen to script, with Prashant, this modern drama based on the original Inuit folk tale. "It happened by mistake, I think!" she laughed. "Actually, I find writing therapeutic, although I have written short stories and poems only for myself before. This story just stuck in my head and I started writing." In fact, she mentioned in the passing that she and beau Anurag are writing together.
Stage is where her heart lies, where she wants to come back again and again, but as for her career, it definitely is Bollywood calling. "In Hindi cinema, all the films I have so far been offered are alternative. They are great, but I would love to do in mainstream, commercial Bollywood movies! Everyone seems to think I am a serious actor only. But why should I say no to a big commercial film?" The only commercial movies she has been offered so far are in Telugu, which she had to decline because of the language barrier.
Kalki's foreign looks have been a hindrance sometimes. "I often get offers for roles of the foreign face girl. To some level, I think Bollywood still has that bias. So I have to be patient," Kalki said.
The actor has busy days ahead. She wants to do a play written by Kaizad Gustad called 'Lesson Zero' which has "a snappy, interesting script". And she has films like Bijoy Nambiar's 'Shaitan' and Anurag Kashyap's 'Happy Ending' (which Mr Kashyap has said was written for her) lined up.
"It's not like that!" (Did we see a hint of a blush there?) "He had the idea, it's a role that he saw me fit to do. It wasn't like he wrote it FOR me. There's this girl from England and her dad's Indian. She comes back to look for her dad, that's the story. That's why it suited me. It makes sense, I mean, it feels good, I mean... We are so enthusiastic to work together." We certainly wish a happily ever after to this talented pair who love to think, and live, out of their cultural boxes.
(An interview with Kalki Koechlin I did a few months ago)
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