Priyanka Bose: Why is indie not mainstream?

Priyanka Bose

Maybe you need to tell me why there is this distinction between Indie and mainstream cinema. I can't understand it. One gets slotted in one particular image and then that's that. I am aching, to break out of this mould," says actress Priyanka Bose, who meets us just before jetting off for the Toronto International Film Festival, where her latest movie, Lion, is going to be screened. We are eating salads on a cool evening at Versova's popular hangout for the filmi type, Leaping Windows. And Bose seems excited as she talks about Lion, which has her playing Dev Patel's mom. "Dev has just grown up so much since Slumdog," says the actress in her early thirties, from Delhi. Lion, which is based on the book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley, tells the story of Saroo who was lost from his family at the age of five and adopted by an Australian family, and who finds his parents at the age of 25 using Google Earth. "I had read an article on this film a few years ago, and I had been like, someone should make a movie on this. I guess I put it out there in the universe and then, I auditioned and they loved it. It's strange playing mother to Dev, but the story is told in flashbacks and dream sequences," she says, adding, "When the character is so great, and the arc so fabulous, it doesn't matter whose mother I have to play."

It could be that attitude that has led to her doing some interesting roles in the past, marking her out to be an actress of note. She shot to fame with her role as a tribal woman in 2010's Gangor, which was directed by Italian director Italo Spinelli. She toured the world with Nirbhaya, Yael Farber's play based on the 2012 Delhi rape case, and film festival friendly movies like 2014's Sold (about a brothel in Nepal), 2012's Oass (about child prostitution) and 2013's Oonga (about an adivasi boy's obsession with becoming Rama). But the indie darling now wants to focus on doing all kinds of movies, even though her next two are also independent ones. "I don't want to do movies where the characters are clichéd," she says, adding, "Actually, I want more women directors and writers to make movies about women. Only then can we stop being wife, daughter, cook and could play the girl next door, who has a dark side."

Priyanka also says that she grew up on Chitrahar and was a big fan of Sridevi. "I think I must be the only filmy person in my family. My parents are very simple people who wanted me to become a doctor. But now they have seen what I do, and are happy. I always wanted to be an actor." Right now, along with waiting for Lion to hit screens in November and working on two other indie projects - "one is a psycho thriller, and another one is a really explicit one" - she wants to be as open to possibilities as she can. "I want to do as diverse roles as I can. I want to do mainstream movies… maybe comedy? I know I can do this. I have faith in me," she signs off.