Shweta Tripathi: All my vacations were spent in Lucknow

Actress Shweta Tripathi, who is shooting in Lucknow today for a bilingual movie recalls her childhood days spent in the city
Shweta Tripathi is not new to Lucknow, and has fond childhood memories of the city, she tells LT, as she comes to Lucknow after wrapping up the shooting for Sanjoy Nag’s film in and around Banaras. Shweta plays the lead in the film, which also stars Revathy, Rituparna Sengupta and Shabana Azmi in a cameo.
What is your connection with Lucknow? My mom grew up in Lucknow, so all my summer and winter vacations were spent in the city. So in fact, whenever I visited Lucknow, I stayed with my mama and mami at their house. For me, all my childhood memories are of summer vacations and garmi ki chhuttiyan matlab Lucknow. Living in Delhi as a kid, my parents and I used to take the Shatabdi early in the morning to come to Lucknow. And I used to look forward to spending our entire vacations here with our cousins. Our day would begin with playing games and eating food. My mama in those days had a Gypsy jo peechhe se open thi and all us cousins would pile into that and have chaat and golgappas and the kebabs you get in Lucknow and kabhi kabhaar paan milta tha, because as kids we weren’t allowed to have paan. In winters, there used to be Christmas party at a five star hotel for kids, jahan hum bacchon ko chhod diya jaata tha, so Lucknow for me has very fond memories. That time my mama used to stay on Vivekanand Marg toh bagal mein Study Hall school hota tha, vahan pe hum log swings pe jaake khelte the. Hazratganj and all that Chikankari work, I know it sounds so touristy but it all is so beautiful. For me, Lucknow is what it was 10-15 years back. I really cherish those memories. On the train back home, I remember I always used to cry kyunki sab cousins ko chhod ke vapas jaana used to feel very bad.
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You graduated from NIFT, so why did you take up a career in films? I guess films had to happen because nothing makes me happier than acting. Like being in front of the camera is my most sacred thing, it’s my la la land. So eventually I think it had to come to this. Aisa nahi hai ki consciously I worked towards the thing because my dad is an IAS officer and ghar pe dur dur tak koi iss industry mein nahi hai. So you don’t think, Delhi mein baithe baithe, that acting is something you can do. Kyunki yeh koi nahi bolta that bade hoke actor ban’na hai kyunki agar bolega bhi toh mazaak banega. But since childhood my parents had always encouraged me to be on stage and to act. So I came to Mumbai not for acting, in fact, it was because of Times Of India; I worked for Femina magazine. But I think wahi hai, that when there’s something that you really want, the universe helps you in getting that. So agar aapke intentions right hain toh things will be lined up for you and I think that is exactly what happened with me. I mean glamour, money excites everybody I’m sure as it does me, but that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I want to make a difference (in the world) in whatever way I can through my films and through the projects that I choose. In fact, I’m going back to Mumbai and I’m in talks with a director and I might be shooting something for Mumbai Police. So inn sab se you can make so much of a difference. Even this project that I’m shooting for in UP, it is about building toilets. I’m playing a runaway bride who runs away from her sasural when she finds out there are no toilets in the village. And she tells her in-laws that she will only come back when they get a toilet built. It’s so relevant. It’s a very entertaining film, you might feel it’s a documentary, but there’s a whole parallel track going on of different characters. And because of Banaras. Kyunki Masaan was also shot there, so Banaras extra special ho chuka hai. My work is sacred to me and the holy land of Banaras has been extremely kind. So much in God and films we trust!
Your kissing scene in Masaan raised quite a few eyebrows so how difficult is it doing such scenes? What was your parent’s reaction to it? It’s definitely not easy doing such scenes in fact, it’s very difficult. It’s not a fun or comfortable thing to do but what Varun had written and how he had written, it was needed in the film. And whoever has seen the film, they say that the awkwardness we have shown is part of the scene. So the kissing scene is a part of the bigger picture. And I know my parents know that I will never do a thing that they would be ashamed of. And when a film goes to Cannes and wins two awards there, this is a very small thing (kissing).
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Masaan and now Good Morning, Sunshine, both are not mainstream Bollywood films. I just feel that as an artist, I am responsible for whatever stories I’m telling in films, so I want to do the kind of cinema that makes me happy, and which satisfies me. I think money and everything else will follow if you have talent and you’re ready to work hard. Luck is something you can’t work on. Aapko kya milega kya nahi milega, it’s not in your hands. A lot depends on the kind of choices that you make. I want to do the kind of work which makes a difference in people’s lives and for which I can be remembered. So this kind of cinema makes me happy. Aisa nahi hai ki I’m not going to do commercial films but the script needs to affect me. So any character, be it any kind of film, commercial or whatever should excite me. So far such strong characters have excited me.

Having been born in a family where your father was a bureaucrat, and having led a fairly comfortable life in Delhi, was it easy to adapt to a life of struggle in Mumbai? Thankfully, our parents never spoilt us. We got it if we deserved it, and if we didn’t, there was no reason why we could have that. I remember as a child I used to tell my dad ki humare ghar mein A/C kyun nahi hai. And he said, because we don’t need one. So I remember we always had a cooler in our house. So somewhere in Mumbai, I was ready for it, although it was a different journey. And it is a struggle but I guess everybody goes through that struggle. I remember I used to take a bus to TOI everyday because when you’re working as an intern, you don’t have the luxury of having too much money to spend on cabs, whereas in Delhi I used to travel by car. Now also I travel in rickshaws everywhere in Mumbai. So if you want to make a big deal out of your struggle, you can, but I don’t want to because I think it’s a part of life and it makes you what you are.

Shweta’s kashi ritual after shoot wrap-up Actor Shweta Tripathi who was shooting for a bilingual film called Good Morning, Sunshine near Varanasi, visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple on Friday evening after the shooting schedule in the city came to an end. Shweta, who was noticed for her role in Masaan earlier, shares, “This is a tradition now. I go to the Vishwanath temple in the costume that I wore for the last scene of the shoot, to offer my prayers. I do this to say thank you to Vishwanath Baba for the film and to seek blessings from him for its success. I went to Vishwanathji after my shooting of Masaan wrapped up in Varanasi, and I went there again on Friday, before catching my flight back to Mumbai.”
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