EXCLUSIVE! Indira Tiwari on ‘Spying Stars’: ‘I am not the hero of my story, my mom is…’ | Not Just Bollywood

It was my pleasure to catch up with one of the most talented actresses of the Indian film industry, Indira Tiwari at the recently held IFFI. Beaming with energy, she spoke about her mother’s contribution for her love for alternative cinema. She has always been a part of cinema that makes you think.

Indira is best known for her breakout role opposite Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Serious Men (Netflix), which won her wide critical acclaim. She went on to play pivotal roles in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi and Sudipto Sen’s Bastar: The Naxal Story. Known for choosing socially resonant and layered characters, she has steadily built a reputation as one of the most powerful emerging voices in Indian cinema.

She represented Indian cinema at the Busan Film Festival (17th–26th September) with her upcoming film Spying Stars, where she plays the lead. Her growth has been incredible as an artist moving from critically acclaimed Indian projects to the global stage. Extremely down to earth and a brilliant craftsman, Indira talks about her journey in the entertainment Industry, shooting in beautifully green Sri Lanka for ‘Spying Stars’, going for the Busan Film Festival and more.

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Edited excerpts from the interview:

On getting to work in a global film…

When I was cast in this, my meeting happened in Hindi. I told them speaking in English is a different thing, but doing a film in English is different. They trusted me and they gave me a leading part and this is my first international debut. I’m growing slowly as a performer. I have now started thinking in English.

How was it like to perform through silence because the movie hardly has much dialogue?

The duration of the film is 90 minutes and there are no dialogues for 40 minutes. When we were going through the script and doing discussions, I was not aware of the background score, or the background music. The film was shot in Sri Lanka and I felt the silence and the calmness within me because that place is very magical. Sri Lanka is just about nature and greenery. The character that I play is disturbed and she is dealing with her own struggles. I’m very grateful that such scripts came to me.

It is very easy to share your feelings by communicating, but it’s also very precious when you share your heart out without uttering a word. But it takes time as it’s not easy. My character Anandi wanted to go to space. She gets that feeling of missing out on something when she comes to Sri Lanka. All the inner monologue is going on in her mind. All this happens because she gets quarantined.

Your choices of movies have been very different, so how do you choose your roles?

Whenever I read through the script, whether it is Oja Mani in ‘Serious Man’, I try to connect myself with the character and also, I try to connect the character by finding familiarities with the women I have seen within the family. There are certain women who work selflessly for the family and don’t want anything in return. Then came Gangubai Kathiawadi. There too I tried to connect with a familiar character. In the end if you ask me, I am not the hero of my story, my mom is because if she didn’t give me the exposure on movies, I wouldn’t have known about good cinema. So, the foreground is not only, in fact the background is more important. For me the backstory of the characters that I play is very important.

There are a lot of things which by just being myself Indira, I will not be able to do. But the characters that I play will help me in doing it. That is, I feel the beauty of being an actor.

Women’s roles in cinema are changing for good and they are no longer just ornamental, what do you have to say about that?

 As a kid I loved V Shantaram films and also, I love Shyam Benegal films, but those were very hard and few. There were very few films where women play a very strong character… They are mostly the mother feeding the hero and mother waiting for their son to visit her.

Long back we also had movies like Mirch Masala. When I watched it for the first time, I was completely in awe. Even when I watched ‘Black Swan’, I used to think who are those people making these films because that is the kind of movie that I wish to do. I recently watched ‘Haq’ and Yami Gautam was amazing. After a point, I didn’t see ‘Yami’ in the film, it was Bano. This gives me a lot of hope. Now the depiction of female roles has changed with female directors coming in. I think with feminine energy around things got aligned.