She’s sipping coffee as we enter, sitting cross-legged on a couch, with the French windows throwing in the rays of a fast setting sun.As the rays play on her hair, Tabu, even with the minimal make-up she’s put on, looks younger than her years. Or is it that we don’t see her often enough to be able to discuss every kilo she’s lost, or in this industry, God forbid, put on? In fact, see her enough toh door ki baat hai, we hardly see her. Where has she been?
This makes Tabu laugh. “Arre, I’ve been here only. In fact in the last one month, I have given more than 21 interviews to the press. Ab toh main autopilot pe aa gayi hoon. I can go blah blah blah,” she says. Interviews dena pasand nahin hai? “Aisa nahin hai. But I like to do that too perfectly – achcha interview, time deke. I don’t want to give sub-standard stuff to anyone. Achche sawal nahin poochte hain, woh toh mein bolte bolte tang aa gayi hoon. But that’s the way...”
But seriously, what’s she been up to? “Everybody wants to know, na? But I have nothing to tell them, because I haven’t been doing anything interesting. I did two films down south that released last year. I finished a film called Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai, which is ready for release. So, I will be seen...” So, she’s put on weight for that? “Earlier they used to. They would ask us to get plump. Not anymore. Now, people down south are getting a little ‘with it’, and they all want Mumbai girls... They always loved me a little chubby, “healthy’ is what they say. ‘Madam, health kavale’ (‘Madam, we want you to be healthy’ in Telugu), is what they tell me. Good for me, na. I eat all the yummy stuff I feel like eating,” she laughs.
But she’ll again have to shape up for Bollywood, or maybe for her next Mira Nair... “Don’t demean our industry by calling it Bollywood. Say Hindi cinema, or Indian cinema,” she says. And she’s ready to defend it further. “Kuch bhi ho, are we a cheap imitation Hollywood? Then why? Yeh toh naya word hai. Pehle hum bolte they kya? Indian films kehte they.” Uff... chalo, Hindi cinema kehte hain... Won’t she have to ‘fit’ in, literally? “You know, every movie industry has its own ‘thing’ – in terms of rule and design. I have to see what fits best for me, and where I fit in,” says Tabu. “In Telugu cinema, for instance, my history has been that of giving super-duper hits, of a glam heroine, a dream girl. Now, of course, I can’t do all this, but now I look for what fits my age and my space right now.”
So, age is a factor in choosing roles? Not a Mira Nair, or a big budget, for instance? “No. It depends on what is being offered to you, and what you want to do. One has to have a basic understanding of how this role fits into the bigger scheme of things – like if in Hindi cinema, then how I am being seen there currently, what are the industry trends, what is happening there. With Mira, the film came to me. I wasn’t looking for something there. If something in the West comes up now, I will see how I will be able to deal with the concept. I can’t do a blonde girl’s role, it will not suit my sensibilities, for instance,” says Tabu. Being typecast hasn’t occurred to her. “I’ve never been trying to break any stereotype. I have chosen films that are vastly different, where the roles vary. I haven’t tried to be a certain ‘type’ either,” she says.
Neither has she tried to clarify any rumours – and there’s a plethora of them – that surround her all the time. Of her doing a sex worker’s role, of her getting married... “They are all rumours. Till I don’t say ‘yes, I am doing it’, you should not believe it,” says she. Doesn’t she feel like reacting to all this chatter about her? “They are just stories floating around. Nowadays, there’s too much – 99 per cent of the time there’s only stories floating around. How much of truth is in them is anybody’s guess.” So, she doesn’t bother with it? “Personally nahin, but the whole system is sometimes ridiculous, aisa lagta hai mujhe. Why does it have to be like this? So baseless, kuch bhi kehna, kuch bhi likhna... thoda ajeeb lagta hai. Come on yaar, nothing is personal, private, sacred anymore. Actually, it’s both ways. People want to be accessible, and will come out on TV shows and say anything, and on that very level, they also seek information about others too. But some people don’t, you know.” From her first film till the current one, Toh Baat Pakki, a Ramesh Taurani film, does she think she’s done stuff she wanted to? “I have only done stuff I have wanted to. My regrets are not about why I did something. Because when I took that decision, I was very sincere about it, there was no doubt. But you are not the only one who’s going to decide that your decision goes the way you want to. This is a very people-oriented industry. We are all co-dependent. So sometimes, it doesn’t turn out the way you wanted it to. But I don’t regret it for why I did it. I see it as the inability of the other person to fulfil my desires, or live up to expectations. I will never put myself down for having taken a wrong decision. If people have failed me, it’s their... loss.”
She plays a matchmaker in TBP. Is she like that in real life? “Not at all! I get very scared of these things. I can’t take responsibility for people’s love lives.” So, she’s not agony aunt material? “I might be one. Lekin I think people are best left to deal with their own things. But I can be a great support, a fantastic friend to have around – I am a very good listener. But it’s not always that I know what advice to give. It’s important to let people talk to you and for you to listen. And that’s all they want – someone to listen to their problems.” With such a sorted sense of relationships, why is she still single? Is she happy with that status?
“Very happy. That’s why I’m single. It is by choice, what did you think?” But one keeps hearing rumours – of her relationship with the much-married actor Nagarjuna, of her marriage... “Woh bhi sab rumours hain. Sab sunte rahiye, but don’t believe a word till I announce it. I am not even interested in clarifying, or wasting my energy over it, or give it mindspace.” Not bothered, again? “Itna agar logon ko apna life control karne doge, then you’re letting them take over your normal day-to-day life na? You get irritated about the utter baselessness of the news. You are sitting somewhere in America, holidaying with your cousins, and suddenly you begin to get congratulatory calls because you’ve gotten married! How can it be so baseless? If you’ve seen something, agar mujhe kisi ke saath dekha hai, and then you allege, phir bhi I can understand. But create this phantom, and then link me up with him... but kya karein? I am not the only one going through this,” she grins.
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