Queen OF HER hustle

First with A Suitable Boy, and now with Netflix’s Bombay Begums, actor Shahana Goswami is coming into her own

- ARUN JANARDHAN

In two back-to-back shows, Shahana Goswami got to portray a whole range of characterisations that swung from the subtle to the silly. As the irreverent Meenakshi in the Netflix series A Suitable Boy, she is playful, sensual, speaks in rhyme and dances all the time. As Fatima in Bombay Begums, she is conflicted, ambitious and lonely.

Goswami did not identify completely with either character because she grew up in a liberal family, which did not question her career or personal choices. She is not a trained actor either, to be able to draw on method and processes.

“The reason I like the camera or cinema is because the actor is not the priority at all times and that’s a nice challenge,” Goswami says over a call. “You are jumping from a scene where you are making love to howling and breaking things. That’s how it works out logistically. It forces you to be in the moment.”

Begums’ most powerful scene – amid several moments of high drama – is Fatima’s confrontational confession to her husband, played by Vivek Gomber, who is coincidentally her spouse in A Suitable Boy as well. As she oscillates between guilt, anger and helplessness, Goswami brings together a range that’s rare, raw and, as she says, very real.

Goswami has done 20-odd films in her decade-and a-half long career, which is fairly low by Bollywood standards. She first came into the limelight as the sceptical Debbie in Rock On in 2008, following it up with movies such as Firaaq and Ra.One, before she moved to Paris to chase international projects. She returned to India recently, driven partly by a slew of opportunities that have opened up in OTT.