Actress Kitu Gidwani is frequently praised for her in-demand roles. During a brief telephonic conversation, The Pioneer spoke with her about her most recent Teleplay Time Please and the ageism prevalent in the industry.
Quote
I feel like maybe the directors are scared to cast older women in their projects. There’s a lot of ageism. If a 50-year-old Shah Rukh Khan can play a young man, then why can’t an older woman be sexy and play interesting roles?
Tejal Sinha
Keeping up with her sass to date is none other than Kitu Gidwani. One who has been an avid Doordarshan viewer would recall seeing her effortlessly essay Jane Austen’s Lydia Bennet in Trishna (1985), the hugely popular Indian adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Moving forward, projects like Saahil, Swabhimaan, Shaktimaan and then working alongside Kamal Haasan in Aaalavandhan, brought the veteran actress to a whole different picture. Jaane Tu…..Ya Jaane Na, Fashion, Wedding Pulav, Ok Jaanu, Fittrat and Ghost Stories have been a few of her much-acclaimed projects, creating an image of hers more than just as a ‘Television actor’.
And to her, the journey has been no less than an educational, interesting and quite fulfilling one. These days, the Shaktimaan fame is seen in Zee Theatre’s teleplay Time Please and the project was a challenge for her, which eventually intrigued her enough to get onboard for the project. “I am a theatre actress, and it wasn’t easy to shoot a whole teleplay in just three days. It was quite challenging. The challenge was that the director, Homi Wadia, thought I would not be able to do the play in just three days. I wanted to prove him wrong! Finally, he did say, ‘Yes, you did it very well!’ We had to learn so many lines. It was not easy because I’m not a Hindi-speaking person in real life. The only other time I had to do this kind of work was during Swabhimaan, where we would do 10 scenes a day and just memorise scene after scene. I would have liked more time to shoot, but budgets were tight. So, it was a challenge but quite rewarding in the end.”
In the teleplay, she’s seen playing an opinionated woman, Manini, who thinks she knows everything about life. Sharing in more details on the same, she says, “When she meets this boy from a totally different social stratum, her defenses go down and she realises her life is a bit of a mess. It’s always interesting to play a character that has ups and downs and comes to a new understanding. In real life, we rarely come to new realisations; we just stick to the same ideas until we die.”
Having been in the industry for so long, she believes that over the years, now one gets to play diverse characters, which is very exciting, especially for an older woman. “You don’t necessarily have to play a mother’s role. I was offered a role where I play a normal woman from a poor strata who is in touch with a big don! It’s a very exciting role, full of emotion, drama and crime,” says the Fashion fame. While many feel that as time passes, age becomes a barrier for one, especially an actress, she has a different perspective on it. “I think the older an actress gets, the better she gets. However, there is definitely a lack of roles for older women and I don’t understand why. I feel like maybe the directors are scared to cast older women in their films and TV projects. There’s a lot of ageism. If a 50-year-old Shah Rukh Khan can play a young man, then why can’t an older woman be sexy and play interesting roles? I look as good today as I did 20 years ago. I’m doing the same activities, you know. It’s ridiculous that people don’t write roles for older women because older women are much more interesting. I’m much more interested now than when I was in my twenties! Older women are treated very unfairly. Acting is not just about looks and a youthful body.”
Acting, she says, is just not about your soul, your spirit, your eyes, the way you speak and the way you emote. That’s what an actor is! “Women should be empowered at every age of their lives. I don’t believe in retiring at all. Today, we have more roles for older women, but only in a small amount. It’s not like in the West, where older women are playing fantastic roles, whether it’s Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Helen Mirren, or Judi Dench. In India, we just discard women once they pass a certain age. It’s completely ridiculous. We treat older women like have-beens. The loss is society’s, not the women’s.”
Over the years, beyond any doubt, she has portrayed diverse characters. However, there have been roles that she has turned down too. For instance, “I have said no to the role of a mother who sits in the background, weeps copiously and is portrayed as a hero. There is nothing to build on here. They might as well take some two-dimensional actresses for that. But there are not many projects I have said no to. I mean, unless it’s for a daily soap. That I refuse all the time.”
Today, for her, it doesn’t matter what type of character she’s supposed to play, as long as it’s a well-rounded human being. “I could play a comedic role—a bank robber, a detective, a drug dealer, a politician—I could play a thousand different characters. It doesn’t matter. Anything apart from a rona-dhona-lacedmother’s character is okay with me.”
According to Dance of the Wind fame, playing ‘mean’ characters is just like playing a good one. “It doesn’t matter; as long as you play it well and if the audience believes it, you’ve succeeded. There is no taboo about playing mean characters! You cannot play a good character all the time because the world is full of mean people. So why should you not play a mean character? Where would a hero be without a villain?”
Also known for her portrayal of multiple characters in television shows, she exclusively speaks out on a concluding note, “ I don’t watch television. There may be some projects that are good, but definitely, it’s been in a black hole for the last 20 years.”
