They don't make them like Kalki Koechlin very often. And by that I mean it's highly unusual for a celebrity who has tasted success in Bollywood to be candid about how her newly acquired fame has taken her by surprise or how she is open to do titillating item numbers but is unlikely to be approached for one because she doesn't fit the bodacious siren mould. Perhaps she has a point there.
The 27-year-old actress — with her bee-stung lips, toothy smile, pasty complexion and questionable grasp of Hindi — is an unusual Bollywood candidate.
"But Bollywood was very forgiving. Even though I did not know Hindi, they overlooked it in Dev D and actually appreciated my efforts," said Koechlin over the phone from Mumbai. The Indian-bred French native made a crackling debut as the saucy, modern-day Chandramukhi in Dev D — billed as today's answer to tragic love story Devdas.
"When I got a call from UTV I was surprised they wanted me for a role in Hindi but they said that I could say my dialogues in English. Then Anurag [Kashyap, Dev D's director] saw the audition and he called me up asking me if I could start learning Hindi. I had a tutor for the longest time and I started from the very basics like the letters. It wasn't easy." But her struggles — linguistic and otherwise — seem to have paid off. Slowly but steadily she has carved a niche with films such as Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD) and the critically acclaimed That Girl In Yellow Boots.
"People are opening up to the idea of seeing me on screen. After every movie they feel — yes, she can do this and she can do that. I think it's just a process where I show that I am capable as an actor and that I don't have any limitations. For me, I want to do every kind of film. I have two left feet, but I would love to learn how to dance and play a danseuse even."
Her latest release saw her push boundaries. She even co-wrote Yellow Boots when her director husband Kashyap (love blossomed on the set of Dev D) asked her to add in a woman's perspective. Words such as "dark and disturbing", "seedy" and "gritty" are often thrown up in reviews.
"To be honest we were very nervous about how the public would react to That Girl In Yellow Boots. It's a film that doesn't entertain and it's a thought-provoking, emotion-triggering film. And the wait has been rather long." Despite showcasing at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, the movie only enjoyed a limited release in India and in the US last month.
"Yellow Boots won't have worked in small towns. It has a certain urban, world-cinema kind of appeal. It needed a certain thinking-kind of audience — it would have been counter-productive to have released it in towns." Her words may sound pretentious but she's anything but.
"Our idea was not to shock the audience — we wanted to move them. You know, it's easy to shock the audience, all we need to do is to titillate them. But there was absolutely no skin show in the film."
Unlike the Salman Khan-starrer and this year's biggest money-spinner, Bodyguard, which released in the same week and got mixed reviews, Yellow Boots was met with superlative reviews.
Unsociable
"I am still reeling from all the compliments. Shooting for the film was an intense process. It was shot in 13 days and that meant you need to be in that zone. During the shoot I was really unsociable and I instructed everybody not to talk to me. You would have seen me with my head-phones — because I play that very numb kind of character."
Unlike the stereotypical, wide-eyed British tourist shown in Bollywood films, her character Ruth is desperate to hunt her missing father down and willing to tread the seamier side of Mumbai. Working in a massage parlour fighting amorous advances from old men and making some extra dough by prostituting herself are all in a day's work.
"It wasn't easy because we had to strike the right emotion and chord among the viewers." So was being directed by her director-husband Kashyap a good thing?
"As writers, we had creative differences. I wanted the script to be a bit uplifting and light, while he wanted it dark. But as a director, I completely trust him. Anurag is one of those directors who lets you be. He doesn't tell you what to do, he just tells you what not to do. That faith helps." She even admits that she wouldn't have played Ruth with such conviction had it not been for Kashyap.
"The film deals with an uncomfortable topic and there you need a director with whom you can have a conversation with. It's a different matter that after spending the whole day together working, he may be the last person you want to see after pack-up," says Koechlin.
But no permanent damage, it seems, since the duo is about to embark on their long-delayed honeymoon to Turkey. "We are not a conventional couple who meet each other on Sundays and plan outings every weekend. We know we have tough schedules, we meet each other on the sets sometimes and we work things out. But that arrangement works for us."
She also claims that her brief but fruitful stint with stardom has not changed her.
"I still believe that I am this girl who will walk around in her chappals [flip-flops] and gangis [vests] in Mumbai. I don't think I will ever be that star in designer clothes and high heels with all that make-up on. And I think people get that now about me now."
