Sticking to the script

For Shweta Tripathi, a good script is all that matters. It does not matter whether she is acting in it, producing it, or both; if a story moves her, she wants to be part of it. “When you’re reading something, and if it works for you, I think that’s it,” she says. “You should not complicate things.” It is the conviction that has taken the 41-year-old actor, whose much-loved character Golu Didi returns in Mirzapur: The Movie, to her first production, Mujhe Jaan Na Kaho Meri Jaan, a queer love story directed by filmmaker Sanjoy Nag. The return to the beginning of Mirzapur after eight years left her momentarily disoriented. “On Day 1 of Mirzapur: The Movie, I was so confused,” she says. The film, she explains, takes the story back to the first season. “At the same time, I am also excited about Season Four. I cannot wait to know what happens to Golu, what she’s doing, what she’s up to, what she’s planning and plotting.”

Seeing the characters again after so long was surreal. “Suddenly they’re alive,” she says of the people she had spent years playing and living with. Mirzapur remains deeply personal for what it gave her—and for the people she grew alongside. Golu Didi, she says, has “become the name of every house”.

Now, Tripathi is taking her relationship with stories a step further, moving behind the camera. Nag had initially approached her to act in Mujhe Jaan Na Kaho Meri Jaan. She decided to be a producer too, because she trusted the story. “It’s a beautiful story,” she says. “It’s so simple.” The film’s queer love story was another reason she felt compelled to come on board. “Why do we put restrictions on love?” she asks. As an ally of the queer community, Tripathi wants the film to stand for “love of all kinds” and celebrate what she calls “the purity of such a beautiful emotion”.

The casting brought another reason for excitement. Tillotama Shome will share the screen with her, and Tripathi’s admiration is evident. “Tilu is just fabulous,” she says. “I will get to learn and grow so much.”

Producing, she has discovered, demands a different kind of involvement. An actor can focus on their own role; a producer has to understand the entire process, from assembling the team to figuring out who can serve the story best. It is also, she says, an exercise in people management. “As a producer, you’re literally the mother. You’re the nanny, too.” The experience has revealed a side of herself she did not know existed. “I was surprised to see this other producer side of me,” she says. “I was like, wow!”

The urge to push boundaries also shapes the actor she wants to be. “I loved acting, and I wanted to tell stories.” Such stories, she believes, should challenge the way women are portrayed. “I want to break stereotypes,” she adds. It is the idea of the “good” woman in media that particularly interests her. Women, she argues, contain many archetypes and cannot be reduced to a single idea of femininity. “We play many roles in our lifetimes,” she says, “Kya hoti ek acchi ladki? (What is a good woman anyway?)” For Tripathi, such questions are at the heart of why she continues to act, and now, produce. “Everything else is a plus,” she says. “But that reason I never want to let go of.”