From Laapaata Ladies, Madgaon Express, and Sister Midnight to All We Imagine As Light, actor Chhaya Kadam surprised audiences as a star in the true sense of the word this year. She talks about her journey, playing diverse roles, how acting shaped her life, and more. Edited excerpts:
You’ve often mentioned that you accidentally became an actor. Tell us about your journey.
When I was a kid, I used to participate in my school’s annual function. I would also play kabaddi—it was something I was really passionate about and would spend all my day in the ground. As a college student, I participated in a show directed by Jhelum Paranjpe, called Azadi ki Jung, because the show required tagde-bigde log. My friends and I thought we’ll get to roam around because of this, so I did a small role of the ‘Awadh ki Begum’. But growing up, there was no culture or awareness in my family of sending kids to a dance class or a workshop. So I never even thought of pursuing any of this.
In 2001, when my father and brother passed away, it broke something in me. I was lonely, I didn’t know what to do, and I stopped stepping out of my home. I realised though that I needed to get out of this situation. I saw a newspaper advertisement about an acting workshop by Professor Waman Kendre. That 15-day workshop gave me a reason to get out of home, to meet new people who didn’t know about whatever I was going through, and it turned my life around. I went on to act in Kendre’s play Jhulwa, which opened more doors. I started enjoying the process very much. And 23 years after that workshop, here I am!
Is there any character or film you’ve worked in that has had a huge impact on your life or challenged your views?
All of my characters and films have done that for me. When we play any character, as actors, we try to gauge what we would want to take away from the character, and what bad traits we would want to steer away from. I have experienced a lot of things very late in life and I haven’t studied at an NSD or a FTII, so my characters have taught me everything.
You’ve portrayed and championed a lot of women and working class characters who are invisibilised by society. Does performing stories like these become taxing?
Artistes need to have an on-off switch to constantly remind themselves that the stories they’re telling are their work. You can’t bring them back to your real life. It’s also important to give time to yourself. What I do is that I go back to my village to spend time with people who don’t know much about my work, or I spend time with my friends who are not related to the industry at all— that grounds me.
Would you now want to work in more films that have softer themes?
My personal attempt is to play newer characters and tell newer stories with every project I take on. Or if the characters are similar, add different layers of nuance to them. But we do whatever roles come to us, so the need is for those stories to be written (laughs)!
Do admiration and recognition that come at a later stage in your career bring in more responsibilities as an actor?
People have been giving me and my work a lot of love. The added responsibility that comes with this is an even greater sense of discipline—now I can’t do anything or any scene without giving my 100% to it, because I know that people come to see the film knowing that if Chhaya tai is in it, there’ll be something new. I give deeper thought to my craft now, but I don’t worry too much about it.
2024 was truly the year of Chhaya Kadam in the movies. Looking back now, how does it feel?
I never thought any of this would ever happen. I used to say that I’ll not die before I win at least one national award. That was the limit of my dreams, but this year truly has been special—an Oscar nomination, a Cannes award, a Golden Globes nomination. It feels very good, especially knowing that when I started out, I had no support. For many years of my career, I had no answer to the questions people had and that would pinch me a lot. But now, people around me know that it’s okay to dream big. If I’m even a small reason that someone has the courage to dream, that is a huge deal for me!
We are excited to see more of you at the cinemas. What’s next now?
A Marathi film I worked on will be releasing in the first week of February next year. Another two-three films, which were shot during Covid, are ready, including one called Alchemist, but I’m not sure when they’ll be released.
