There's something about Mita

An honest passion for her art makes Mita Vashist the complete actress she is.
How do you start a conversation with someone who is smart, intelligent and knows exactly what she’s doing?
If this someone happens to be actress Mita Vashist, you’d better stick to the real stuff. No frivolous talk or airy kisses in the air here. And there’s something about Mita that hits you straight in the face.
It’s a kind of honest freshness, a confidence, that you know comes only with experience. Well over 30, Mita has maintained herself so well that she comes across as a modern-day independent woman, something which might intimidate the men around her, but she starts talking, the vulnerable Mita comes out.
An interviewer’s dream, Mita doesn’t mince her words and tells you all you need to know. She chatted up with PT at Hotel Sagar Plaza, Pune, where Mita had come down as part of the promotional tour for Deepak Tijori’s film Oops!. Hers is a crucial role in the film. Sharon, the character she plays is an aggressive socialite, but like most rich and impulsive women, lonely at heart.
Mita is known as a character actress, someone who won’t do those frivolous, pretty girl roles that most heroines would think twice before saying no to. It’s a common myth that most theatre artistes get relegated to parallel cinema and are quietly forgotten.
Not Mita. Open to good roles, she excels in most projects she takes up. Mita’s journey into acting was never an intended one. “I was in my Class 11,when our teacher asked us about our dream? I said that I wanted to enter into everyone’s mind for five minutes and experience life itself,� she reminisces.
“That was the moment when I decided I wanted to act. If I can’t act, then I’d rather repair cars in the garage or be a sailor,� she adds. Mita took to acting as a fish to water.
She fell in love with the medium when she was in college and decided to take it as a full time profession after she joined the National School of Drama (NSD). “I needed to work and I believe in only one thing, that whatever you do in life, it reflects on the kind of life you will live,� she tells us.
Mita loves to get involved with everything to do with films, be it the script or even shooting questions at the director. Mita’s initial journey into films started off with parallel cinema, which included films like Siddheshwari, based on the great thumri singer and directed by Mani Kaul. At 24, Mita had given her first nude shot for the film. “If it is needed and the script asks for it, then there’s no harm in doing so.What scares me is lack of aesthetics,� she adds.
After working with directors like Mani Kaul, Govind Nihalani, Subhash Ghai and now Deepak Tijori, Mita terms her journey as ‘spiritual flexibility’. “I become a multi-faceted actor, always interacting with the director on his plane, rather than mine,� she admits.
Mita describes herself as a strong individual. “I don’t like to lie to myself nor anybody else and the camera that I face is a very ruthless creature. It’s like God’s eye watching over everything,� she maintains.
And that makes Mita walk the road she has so passionately chosen.
prachi.bari@timesgroup.com