Debutant director Jeejivisha Kale’s Marathi film Tighee released on March 6. Two weeks later, a colossal Hindi film was out. There was nothing common between the two films except that both had two seasoned actors who kind of ‘broke’ out! There was Rakesh Bedi, who after several years of being a ‘comic’ face in the industry had captured everyone’s imagination with his character of Jameel Jamali, and there was Bharati Achrekar, also known for her ‘comic’ turn in the Doordarshan gem Wagle Ki Duniya, who had struck gold as Hemlata Ranade in Tighee.

Interestingly, Achrekar has been in the industry for the past 57 years and has done tons of films and plays, yet calls Tighee as her first “big central part”. The film completed 50 days on Friday (April 24) and is a ‘superhit’. Riding on a positive word of mouth wave, it is the closing film at The New York Indian Film Festival to be held in June and Achrekar has been nominated in the Best Actress category.

When we meet Achrekar at a studio in Malvani, Malad, where she is shooting her “first Marathi serial”, she is happy and dancing. But it’s not because she is nominated, it’s for a wedding haldi scene. Shot over, Achrekar is Zen-like about the praise Tighee is receiving.

“I like to underplay things. I don’t get over-excited. I am just happy my character and the film has touched hearts. Even the non-Marathi-speaking audience is praising it. I am told the film feels like a story unfolding in your neighbour’s house. It is so relatable. The praise, the love feels unbelievable. The nomination has not sunk in yet,” she smiles.

Hemlata is a single mother of two daughters. A steely upright woman, she is forced to stand up for her girls at the cost of leaving her husband, even if it means living a lonely, hard life. “I have been a single mother myself. I was widowed at 34. My son was just nine. Playing Hemlata came naturally to me,” says Achrekar.

In the film, in her dying days, Hemlata announces her decision to her two daughters to let her spend her last days in a hospice rather than a sterile hospital. Her reason: “I want to die with dignity. Please let me have that. I have even taken care of the finances.” It is a tough yet tender role and speaks a lot about the woman Hemlata is.

Achrekar is no different. “I have been working all my life, always been financially independent. Acting is all I knew. I could have pursued classical singing because I am Manik Varma’s (classical singer) daughter but since I had to bring up my son I chose acting. It paid me,” she says simply.

Achrekar is largely known for her light-hearted roles, be it the films Chameli Ki Shaadi and Beta or Wagle Ki Duniya. So how did she get Hemlata? “I still don’t know why JeeJi (writer-director) cast me. But I am happy she and Nikhil (Mahajan, co-producer) came to me. I had worked with Nikhil, who had directed Pune 52. With Tighee, I feel I came a full circle. It doesn’t matter now if I get another role to play. I am content,” she says, adding the last time she felt “satisfied was during Vijaya Mehta’s Marathi play Hamidabaichi Kothi”. That was 33 years ago.

After 57 years in the industry, her consummate performance in Tighee seems perfect. “It was liberating. No make up, no costumes… just coming to the set every day and performing. All those years of acting led to this.” At 77, Achrekar did scenes that had lengthy monologues. “The theatre background really helped. The scene where I am telling my daughters to let me live in a hospice was a tough one. It was a one shot but gave me immense room to move about, emote, hold myself, pause, cry everything. I can cry at the drop of a hat,” she smiles.

She credits her two onscreen daughters Neha Pendse Bayas and Sonalee Kulkarni “for being great co-actors. Without their reactions my performance would be incomplete”.

Ask her what her three sisters (Vandana Gupte, Rani Varma and Aruna Jaiprakash) thought of her performance and she laughs, “They loved it. They have told me that if I don’t get a National Award, they will do an andolan.”

Her only son, who lives in the United States, is yet to see the film. “He said he will watch it with me when I go there next.”

Right now, it’s only work for the next few months. Achrekar will be touring with the Tighee team to Pune to meet people. “It is a 15-day tour around Maharashtra but I am only going to Pune because I am shooting. I will also be re-joining Ekta Kapoor’s Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhie Bahu Thi. There is also a small role in director Vikas Bahl’s next. The next few months are busy after which I hope to take a break, rest for a while,” she says. It will be a well-deserved break for Achrekar. She has earned every bit of it.