Tejaswini Kolhapure, whose filmography largely consists of experimental films, gets candid about her impactful role being edited out of Mani Ratnam's larger-than-life blockbuster Raavan. She reflects on how disheartening the outcome was because it could have paved the way for her to establish herself in mainstream Bollywood
Tejaswini Kolhapure
Tejaswini Kolhapure has carved a niche for herself in the film industry since her debut film, Paanch, in 2005. In the past decade, she has distanced herself from the industry, occasionally appearing in experimental films like Good Morning Sunshine and Zindagi Kashmakash. Now she is all set to foray into the commercial space with her next venture, Dadi Ki Shaadi, a lighthearted family entertainer starring Kapil Sharma and Neetu Kapoor.
In an exclusive interview with mid-day, Tejaswini Kolhapure looks back at her career trajectory and explains why her filmography comprises radical and forward films. She also sheds light on why she stepped away from cinema, recalling being typecast and offered bold characters.
Tejaswini Kolhapure on being typecast
She reflected on how her earlier choices shaped the kind of work she was offered. Despite being the sister of superstar Padmini Kolhapure, Tejaswini's film debut did not come easily. She chose to appear in the TV serial Mujhe Chaand Chahiye, which became a roadblock to entering films.
“I didn’t understand the repercussions of what would happen,” she reflected. “After doing television, when I met a lot of commercial directors, they were not very pro-casting me because I had already done TV and I had been exposed. There was no novelty.”
Tejaswini eventually made her Bollywood debut with Anurag Kashyap's Paanch (2003). With multiple controversies surrounding its release, Paanch became a barrier preventing her entry into mainstream Bollywood. The film's bold and forward theme led filmmakers to make incorrect assumptions about her willingness to push boundaries, and the subsequent roles offered were crass and vulgar.
"My first film, Paanch, was very different, an experimental film, so that went against me. It's such a forward movie, and people's sensibilities were so different. People couldn't understand what Anurag had made. So then the kind of films that came to me were very different. They were not commercial films.”
Even when commercial films came her way, she chose not to take them up. “I got a lot of films with scenes I was not okay with. They were very crass, and not the kind of stuff I could handle,” she disclosed.
As a result, she chose to step back from the industry and return to theatre.
'My character was taken out of Raavan'
When asked about her experience working on Mani Ratnam's Raavan (2010), Kolhapure said, "Raavan was a larger-than-life film. There were so many people involved in that film that you feel really tiny."
When asked further about her experience on set, she interjected, “I wouldn’t really want to talk much about Raavan. It was a film which was edited on the table, and all our characters were actually taken out. So there’s nothing to talk about because none of us are really part of the film, although we shot for it.”
Getting candid about the huge emotional impact of the outcome, she mentioned, “What was told to you and what eventually happens - that was a big bummer. It set me back. My confidence just kind of went off after that for a bit.”
The disappointment was compounded by the nature of the role and the doors it might have opened for her. Tejaswini went on to remark that Raavan could have given her the visibility to break into mainstream Bollywood. “I had a very powerful role,” she revealed. “If it had happened the way it was told to me, then definitely things would have changed.”
“For an actor who’s always been doing different cinema, but in a commercial setup, if the scenes that were shot were present, then that would have been looked at very differently,” she said. “That could have been a game changer.”
Stressing the power of correct placement, she opines, “I think it comes down to placement. It happens to a lot of actors. If you’re placed correctly in a commercial project and it works, then things just change.”
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