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Tillotama Shome talks about Ikka, working with Siddharth P. Malhotra, her co-stars, prison workshops, and her spiritual journey.

To put it very simply, Tillotama Shome is one of the best actors we currently have. Her versatility, artistic integrity, and commitment to meaningful storytelling has been seen over a career spanning more than two decades, where she has consistently chosen powerful, unconventional. With a Master's Degree in Educational Theatre from New York University she also taught theatre to inmates at a high-security prison. Making her debut with Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding (2001), she played stand out roles in movies and web series such as Qissa, Sir, A Death in the Gunj, Delhi Crime Season 2, Lust Stories 2 and Paatal Lok Season 2. Tillotama has also been practicing Nichiren Diashonin’s Buddhism, a spiritual practice, which she credits as the backbone of her life.

Her most recent project was the courtroom drama Ikka on Netflix, directed by Siddharth P. Malhotra. Over a 30 minute long zoom video interview with us, she spoke about her experience working on the film, the misconception we have about those in prison and more.

Excerpts:

Why were you surprised when you got a call for Ikka?

When i got a call from the director, I wasn't really sure how serious he was, because i don’t get calls for these kind of films (big scale and stars) very often. So i was shocked, but what moved me was how sincerely he wanted me to be part of the film, as he had seen my prior work.

Tell us about working with Siddharth, Sunny, Akshaye and Dia.