EXCLUSIVE! Tillotama Shome on Netflix’s Tribhuvan Mishra: CA Topper: ‘We as a society are terrified of women desires’ | Not Just Bollywood

Sex- workers can be male too. We have not seen any movies or series based on male escort services or gigolos in Indian cinema. We have seen actresses playing roles of prostitutes. But it is the other way round in Netflix’s Tribhuvan Mishra: CA Topper web series. The rawness of the story is what makes it appealing. In an EXCLUSIVE interview with Firstpost for Not Just Bollywood, Tillotama Shome and Manav Kaul talk about the show and the world of male escorts and most importantly women’s desires.

The showrunner of  Netflix’s _Tribhuvan Mishra: CA Topper_   Puneet Mishra has created a world that is not seen much in Bollywood movies. The straight forward approach to the story is what makes the show unique.

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Edited excerpts from the interview:

When you were choosing this role of Bindi, what was it that made you say ‘yes’ to the show Netflix’s Tribhuvan Mishra: CA Topper?

Tillotama: Puneet, one of the makers of the show chose me in a way that I didn’t understand what made him choose me because this milieu is very unfamiliar to me especially the obsession that my character Bindi has with Bollywood songs, huge hangover and this hopeless romantic.

But when you read all the characters, especially the women characters, they were so beautifully written. And to have that expression of women’s desires and loneliness from a younger woman to women in their forties and seventies is beautifully depicted in the show. We as a society are terrified of women’s desires.

It was so refreshing to see a man like Puneet write about women’s desires without being apologetic. And the narration was straight forward with no unnecessary context building. A simple thing is said in a straightforward way that by having sex with some other man outside marriage, you cannot be labelled as gaandi (dirty). All the characters are well fleshed out and OTT is helping us tell those stories with a broader arc of the character.

Manav, what was the preparation of the role like since you are playing a male escort in Netflix’s _Tribhuvan Mishra: CA Topper_ ?

The script was extremely well written and in a lot of details. Puneet  had given me narration of each and every episode with the expressions. In fact, when I was reading the script, I got so addicted to it that somehow I had to finish reading all the episodes. By reading the script I understood that there is an energy in the show. Sadness too is depicted in an entertaining way. It’s a very different world and thanks to the directors that they introduced us to this world. And after doing the show I kind of started having huge respect for escorts.

All the characters are important in the show. It’s a fictional world, but so close to reality and the way the characters and the story is weaved, it is absolutely beautiful.

Manav, what do you have to say about the different layers of your character?

Series is like a novel and to move from one chapter to another, you can’t show just one aspect of a character. You have to show the layers so that the audienes are hooked to the last page. And you are creating a world through your character. The world of male escorts is so beautifully written, that it is simply addictive and you have to keep watching one episode after another.

WATCH the trailer of Netflix’s Tribhuvan Mishra: CA Topper here: