Shweta Basu Prasad became a household name and one of the most popular child actors following the release of her films Makdee (2002) and Iqbal (2005). Although she has been an active part of the industry since then, with just a gap of a couple of years, Shweta says that she was never exploited for work, thanks to her parents. The actress says that she is an outsider who grew up in the industry and considers it her extended family.
She can currently be seen in the series Criminal Justice Season 3, where she plays public prosecutor Lekha and is pitted against Pankaj Tripathi’s Madhav Mishra. In a freewheeling conversation with us, the actress opened up on her series, her major learnings from her character and her journey in the industry.
Excerpts from the interview:
Tell us about your role in season 3 and what attracted you to it.
I’m an audience first and anything after that. I need to be excited by what I read. I loved the script and I’ve never played a lawyer before. I’ve never done stage or theatre. I’ve always been a camera actor. The long takes, monologues, and courtroom drama which required a lot of reading and blocking really excited me. The script is also not an adaptation, it is created by the Indian content creators. And of course, it is a popular series. My family is also a huge fan. When I told my brother that I am playing the public prosecutor and will be pitted against Madhav Mishra (Panjak Tripathi), he joked that he already doesn’t like me for going up against him. It speaks volumes about how popular Madhav Mishra is.
This is the second time you are working with Pankaj Tripathi. What were your major learnings this time?
I really liked how he questions his dialogues. He doesn’t just mug them up and says them. I think that’s a great takeaway, because a lot of times, you’ve read the script, and it’s all going in one flow, and then you don’t question something that could have been missed. He doesn’t forget that. He has an eagle eye and he’s very focused and aware of what he’s saying and what he’s doing. He’s also a good co-star and a good listener. And when you have a good co-actor, it complements your own work.
Have you ever felt that being a part of showbiz since childhood made you miss out on certain things while growing up?
Not at all. In fact, after Iqbal, my parents said no to a lot of movies. They said no to Rajkumar Santoshi’s Halla Bol and Madhur Bhandarkar’s Traffic Signal because they wanted me to study and have a normal life.
In fact, I have had a lot of personal things growing up that I did apart from acting. Acting is a part of my life, a very integral part, but it’s a part. I have a life after that. I play the sitar, I’m trained in classical music, I paint, I write, I travel the world. I’ve made documentaries, and I’ve completed my graduation in Mass Media and Journalism. After that, I assisted Anurag Kashyap when I was 22-23 years old on a short film.
I worked with Phantom Films as a script consultant. I’ve produced short films, I think I’ve done more than any actor can do. I’ve been acting in the last four or five years more actively as an adult since the advent of OTT, not before that.
I’m very grateful to my parents that they really balanced it out for me, and they did not exploit me, they did not make me work. In fact, they said no to work, and they made me study, they made sure that my graduation was done.
I also lead a normal life, like any other girl. I’m not on social media, I’m a very reserved private person. When I’m at home, I’m at home and when I’m working, I am working. I don’t think I’ve missed out on anything. If at all, I’ve had more to life.
So you would say there were no cons of being in the entertainment business from childhood?
Not for me. When Makdee was released I was very popular. A lot of people in school would want to be friends with me because I was popular. But then I have lovely friends from school and they’re still my friends. We have a WhatsApp group and we hang out once in a while. They hang out with me like they hang out with any other classmate.
Also, I am an outsider who has grown up in this industry. It’s my extended family. A lot of people in the industry are really close and people have known me since I was a kid. It’s my comfort zone.
What was your major takeaway or learning from this season of Criminal Justice?
My own character taught me a lot because you’re fighting it out and it is a battlefield. And when you fight, you try to outwit the other person, you try to fight it out with the other person and then you get to your ugliest point. You say things that are sensitive, and you do things that are immoral. My biggest takeaway from Lekha, my character, was to not make it ugly when you’re fighting because even though we are not lawyers, and we’re not dealing with the law but we are constantly advocating and arguing.
Even if you’re arguing or fighting, it should never reach an ugly point.
What are your upcoming projects?
My next release will be Madhur Bhandarkar’s India Lockdown, which is based on the lockdown situation in India. I’m playing a sex worker from Kamathipura. After that, there is Vikram Aditya Motwane’s Jubilee which is a period drama.
Then there would be Tribhuvan Mishra’s CA Topper for Netflix, which is being written and shown run by Puneeth Krishna, who was one of the writers of Mirzapur.
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