EXCLUSIVE: De De Pyaar De Actress Tabu Says 'There Is A Huge Shift In The Equation With Directors I Work With Now'

Tabu is one actress who is much larger in terms of the workings of her mind and the understanding of her craft than what the audiences have already seen of her and what the directors have made out of her as an actress. Her roles have always been varied and it is as though a film that could gauge the depths of her skills is yet to be made!

The actress has been a favourite of the thinking audience and the thinking directors. Having said that, she has had a fair hand at the commercial mainstream cinema as well. Her latest film opposite Ajay Devgn called De De Pyaar De is slated for release. On this occasion, I got an opportunity to ask her some very pertinent questions that directly pertain to her self and her choice of films. The superlative actress has been a part of some milestone films like Maachis, Haider, Hu Tu Tu, Astitva  which were directed by intellectuals like Gulzar Saab, Mahesh Manjrekar, Vishal Bharadwaj so on and so forth and then again she has worked in films like Biwi No.1, Haqeeqat, Aamdani Atthani  and now De De Pyar De which had commercial mainstream filmmakers helming the projects.

She feels, it is her age and the director’s age that makes the chunk of the difference between the directors of yore and the directors of today. Quipped she, “People like Gulzar Saab and JP Dutta were much senior to me and the directors I am working with now are my age now belong to my age group or much younger, therefore it a shift in the equation is more than imminent. The directors I work with now are in their own headspace and I have already grown.”

The actress also feels that it is their individual nature that also influences that kind of work they extract from her. She revealed all directors have different natures, David (Dhawan) had a completely different way of working than a Gulzar or a Mani Ratnam, Sooraj (Barjatya) is different from Mahesh (Manjrekar). Every director has a different way of dealing with actors, some make you work in a very loving manner, they literally hold your hand and teach you every tactic to walk on the tight rope while some work from a distance.

Despite the difference in the age group and the understanding level, she says there is not much difference when it comes to approaching her craft. She asserts, “I approach my work in pretty much the same fashion, the directors are there with you till a certain point because in front of the camera, you are on your own, you have to perform what you understand from the character, no one will tell you what to do then. She further revealed, she got to learn a lot from Gulzar Saab, Ang Lee, Mani Ratnam and that how she shared “a beautiful working relationship with Vishal Bharadwaj.” The lovely lady vowed that she enjoyed every experience and every time she got to work with a different mindset.

It wouldn’t at all be an exaggeration to Tabu her one of the finest actresses of our generation. Even though she is part of commercial comedy flicks but her heart lies in the kind of work she did earlier. She revealed, “I feel satisfied doing characters that engage me and characters that allow me to express deeper and more parts of myself and my personality, characters that have layers, that have the depth that I can exhibit.”