Madhureeta Mukherjee (BOMBAY TIMES; June 17, 2021)

A decade ago, even in our wildest imagination, we wouldn’t have thought that a top actress would play the titillating Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture. Vidya Balan did — with guts and gumption, she unleashed herself on the big screen for a film that went on to roar for the right reasons, and we mean, beyond the glory of box-office numbers. It paved the way for more power-induced roles for actresses in an industry where the natural habitat is hero-dominated. After a variety of films which include Kahaani 2, Tumhari Sulu, Mission Mangal and Shakuntala Devi in recent times, Vidya is now stepping into the wild territory, as she plays a forest officer in Amit Masurkar’s (of Newton fame) Sherni, which will premiere globally on Amazon Prime Video, on June 18. In a conversation with us, Vidya talks about women who battle the deep-rooted problem of patriarchy in our society and the sherni that lives within all of them. Read on…

With Sherni, we will be seeing you in another seemingly challenging and rare role, and this time you have crossed the boundaries and stepped into the wild, literally. How was it treading on that path?
It was quite refreshing, and like you said, I have stepped into the wild and it was really unfamiliar territory for me. I had been on jungle safaris and that was my only experience of being in the wild. I have watched documentaries on wildlife to understand that world, but I have never been a part of anything like this before. So, the experience of working on this film has definitely altered my relationship with nature.

Apart from focusing on the man-animal conflict, the film tackles another issue as old as the forest trees — patriarchy. As part of your prep, did you interact with women forest officers to understand the challenges that they face on ground, in a territory that’s largely male-dominated?
Yes, I interacted with the female forest officers, and I was surprised to see quite a few of them. Of course, it is still a male-dominated bastion. I wanted to understand what their job entails, what kind of training they go through and how passionate they are about conservation. It’s a tough job, which often requires them to stay away from their families for long periods of time. In the trailer of the film, you get a whiff of the patriarchal mindset of our society, where we are constantly underestimating women. And no one is to blame here, it stems from lack of awareness. The female forest officers see themselves as someone doing their job and not as ‘female’ forest officers. Yes, it is considered a male-dominated profession as it is physically arduous and dangerous — and we don’t typically associate women with such jobs. Women have had to navigate their way through the dense jungle of patriarchy.

Your character, Vidya Vincent, seems to be restrained, dignified, a woman of few words, but deep down there is a lot simmering. The sherni inside her is waiting to roar. Did you at any point identify with it? Were there situations in life where you were calm on the exterior, but the tigress within was waiting to come alive?
Of course, many times, however, as individuals, Vidya Vincent and I are very different. She is reserved, rarely smiles and feels that the forest is her safe haven. She is someone who would rather not engage with the world. She is not what you call a stereotypical sherni, and you won’t see the obvious manifestation of the sherni within her. When you define someone as a sherni, they are strong, but in an obvious kind of way; Vidya is not like that, and yet, she is a woman of great integrity, is strong-willed and uses her voice where it matters. It’s not like by the end of it, she roars. It is not her personality. She is an everyday hero.

You don’t have to roar to show your might. Power and will can be demonstrated in other ways, too, is what you are saying?
Yes, absolutely! You don’t need to roar to prove you are a tigress. For me, the line in the teaser encapsulates what a sherni is, ‘Jungle kitna bhi ghana kyun na ho, sherni apna raasta dhoondh hi leti hai.’ This line speaks for every woman and this film is also an ode to the faceless, innumerable individuals who go about doing the right thing without expecting glory at the end of it. Every woman might not be standing on the world stage, making a difference politically, climbing the corporate ladder, or facing the camera — she doesn’t have to do something that’s celebrated, yet she can be a sherni. If we are being able to do what we are doing today, it is because of all those shernis in our lives who sacrificed their dreams, but gave us the strength and courage to move on fearlessly. There are women who have navigated their way through families where they literally had no rights and were disrespected, but they endured it all so that their children didn’t have to go through similar experiences. Are these women any less shernis? No! Sometimes you don’t have the tools to break the shackles, but you have the will. That will is what sees you through. For me, this film has redefined what a strong woman and a real hero is.

Last year, your film Shakuntala Devi was slated for a theatrical release, but due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it released on an OTT platform. Likewise, Sherni had to change course and is now seeing a digital release. How do you think the landscape of our cinema is changing, evolving in the new normal, with so many external factors impacting the usual, traditional ways of the film business?
We couldn’t have done anything about it, as this is not a situation that’s been created by the film industry. It is not like the video revolution that happened in the 80s that affected the industry, it’s a pandemic that has impacted all humans and industries, and the film industry is no different. I think OTT platforms offer you a great alternative to showcase your content, especially content that’s ready. At the time of Shakuntala Devi, we didn’t know what it even meant to release a film on OTT. By the time we shot the second schedule of Sherni, we had thought it would get a theatrical release as things were better, but the scenario changed. It’s finally releasing on OTT, and I am so glad we have avenues like these that allow us to take our films to people across 240 countries and earn us new audiences. When theatres reopen, I believe that OTT platforms will continue to thrive and so will theatres. They will always be two different experiences.

Smashing stereotypes, bending norms is what we have seen you do through a lot of your work — The Dirty Picture, Kahaani, Tumhari Sulu, Shakuntala Devi. Do you set out to seek such roles, or do such roles attract you? It is like… this is what we expect Vidya to do — from an audience’s point of view. We call such movies women-centric films, in your case, I think the audience looks at the movie and says that this is ‘Vidya-centric’ cinema.
(Laughs!) I am really humbled by that. But I don’t think on my part it’s a conscious call at all, as I do films that resonate with me. The films that I choose are a reflection of my current state of mind. I was ready to embrace the wild, and therefore, Sherni happened. So, I don’t think that through my films I have made a conscious attempt to smash patriarchy or challenge the status quo, it happened along the way. I am glad and thankful that people are writing such stories and making the films that I believe in. You can’t step out to do these films specifically. In Sherni, you will get to see a new kind of strong woman — the one who goes about doing the right thing. The silent, invisible strong woman. My film choices are a two-way street — where people are writing and offering me some of these stories and I am steering towards it. We meet mid-way, somewhere. Am I seeking such roles? I guess I don’t know the answer to it, and I think it’s a good thing that I don’t.