A new character was conceived for Tannishtha in the adaptation of A Long Way Home
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 10, 2016)
Ten years ago, Tannishtha Chatterjee made her international debut in Oscar-winning German director Florian Gallenberger's film, Shadows Of Time. It was to screen at the Berlin Film Festival and Tannishtha was staying at the most expensive hotel in the city. "That was the first time I walked the red carpet in one of my mom's saris. The festival director handed me a glass of champagne and introduced me to Keanu Reeves. That was the only time I felt like a celebrity," reminisces the actress who has just wrapped up Garth Davis's Hollywood film, Lion, for which she filmed with Slumdog Millionnaire actor Dev Patel and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Kolkata at the end of 2015. Based on the book, A Long Way Home, the film also features Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara as Dev's adoptive parents. They were to shoot in Kolkata for a day, but eventually their sequences were filmed in New Zealand and Australia. "Dev is great to hang out with and a fabulous actor," says Tannishtha, whose role was not there in the original novel. "Garth over an email offered me the role of Dev's Indian biological mother which I didn't want to play. He realised that and we never spoke about that role again. But two weeks later, he told me that he'd written a part for me which I loved. She's a local woman in Kolkata whom Dev meets."
In her decade-long career, Tannishtha acknowledges that she's been typecast a lot because of her race and colour. "I have fought at every point to not let my physical attributes be the reason to get a role, but that's how global cinema is driven. My image has imprinted into who I am, It is difficult to break that," she sighs.
Today, Tannishtha is at the London Indian Film Festival where she is being presented with a special BAFTA Honour, Tongues on Fire, for her Contribution to Asian Cinema. The earlier recipients have been Shyam Benegal, Shabana Azmi, Jaya Bachchan, Mira Nair and Nandita Das, amongst others. This will be preceded by a week-long screening of her recent films, Angry Indian Goddesses and Chauranga, and her yet-to-be-released British drama, Feast Of Varanasi, in which she plays a tough cop, Guneet Monga's Monsoon Shootout alongside Nawaz and UnIndian, cricketer Brett Lee's acting debut.
"On the closing night, I'll get my award after Naseer sir's (Naseeruddin Shah) film, Waiting, plays. I once studied under him at the National School of Drama, hoping to be an actress," she smiles.