What began as a passion in school for the talented Bengaluru-based actor Padmavati Rao, has only become stronger and deeper. The silver haired lady comes across as an affable personality and in this candid chat, she shares her journey as a theatre actor moving on to make her mark in Kannada films, and the latest Bollywood film TE3N where she plays the role of Amitabh Bachchan’s wife.
Prod her on how she bagged the role in TE3N and she reveals, “They were looking for someone from theatre, and I had just opened Kitchen Poems, my solo performance of Dhiruben Patel’s 60 plus poems. I believe it was word of mouth that contributed to me being contacted for this. On the sets, I was most touched with Bachchan Sahab getting up every time I entered the set, offering me a seat. He was his courteous best. Once I happened to sit down between shots on the set as I did not go to my van. I felt a little strange as my feet wouldn’t touch the ground, but I ignored it and went on sketching. Later, an assistant director came and whispered in my ear to tell me that I was sitting in his chair! He had entered the room after his shot, and turned back without saying a word to me. I wanted the earth to swallow me, but again when I apologised to him he didn’t make much of it all.”
She worked on a production as assistant director on a Kannada play titled Gumma Banda Gumma presented in the German tradition of Grips Theatre. She wrote and directed a play titled, Making a man of an Ass for the Akshaya Patra Foundation.
One of her short films The Visitor was screened at the Bangalore International Film Festival and the International Film Festival of Kerala. Recalling her experience on how it all began, Padmavati shares, “I met Girish Karnad at Bombay Labs where Kavita Krishnamurthy was recording the title song of the film. We shot on location at a village called Turmari near Belgaum. We lived in tents, and bathed in the open in sky bathrooms. Our production head Satish Tagarpur would often sit under the Tamarind tree and cook fish curry for everyone. I had already worked with Shankar Nag as my director years ago so working with him as co-actor made it easier. I think, I got taken up with the medium and got curious about it during the making of this film. Working on Shankar Nag’s Malgudi Days clinched it for me. I wanted to be a film maker! Immediately after schooling, I did a Marathi amateur theatre production which was directed by Shankar. The play was an adaptation of Vaclav Havel’s Memorandum. It was from here that I got chosen for Girish Karnad’s Ondanondu Kaladalli, my first Kannada film. I also acted in another Kannada film called Geetha where Shankar Nag was the actor as well as the director. Even today, people recognise me on the streets and tell me that they remember me from that film.”
When not acting, you can find her, “Sketching, singing, writing poetry, watching every film at a film festival I can catch... till I am squinting at the end of each day. Kitchen Poems shows on July 2 and 3 at Ranga Shankara, and I will be busy rehearsing till then. Also on the anvil is the publication of my book of love poems and songs. It’s a tribute to the good old songs of old Hindi films and the one emotion that makes life beautiful.”
