Tabu: When offering script, he met me as director

Having known Vishal’s son Aasmaan since he was a child, Tabu on forming an actor-filmmaker relationship with him as they teamed up on Kuttey

Can there be too much of a good thing? Not for Tabu. The actor, who has delivered some of her most nuanced performances in Vishal Bhardwaj’s films, has reunited with the director for Khufiya. But Vishal isn’t the only Bhardwaj on her résumé. It’s not surprising that when the filmmaker’s son Aasmaan Bhardwaj decided to turn director with Kuttey, he knocked on Tabu’s door. Having shot with the father-son duo on the two projects over the past few months, the actor says they are worlds apart. “I worked with Vishal and Aasmaan simultaneously. They are poles apart. It’s outstanding to collaborate with Vishal again. You wish the film goes on to have a great destiny, but for me, the experience of working with him is more important. Khufiya is a classic Vishal film with his signature touch,” she says of the espionage thriller. 

Vishal and Aasmaan Bhardwaj

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From Maqbool (2003) to Haider (2013), Tabu has become a familiar part of the filmmaker’s world. Walking into Aasmaan’s film, she was keen to see what the new blood would have to offer. The actor is impressed after having shot for the black comedy that also stars Naseeruddin Shah, Konkona Sen Sharma, Arjun Kapoor and Radhika Madan. “I have seen Aasmaan as a child. But when he offered the script to me, he met me as a director. On the set, we have a director-actor relationship even though I have known his family for so many years. He allows me to [put forth] my point of view, and we discuss it. It’s nice to see his clarity of vision.”

To Tabu, Kuttey and Khufiya — though belonging to different genres — are an extension of the kind of movies she believes in. “I have always felt liberated [doing layered roles]. I want to experience different parts, without thinking about how they will [affect] my career. Now, characters have become more layered, but I have been playing such roles since the beginning.”

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