Tannishtha Chatterjee: Mainstream films have fed audience with bad acting

Tannishtha Chatterjee

Tannishtha Chatterjee feels one can easily distinguish between trained and untrained actors and says it is rather sad that the mainstream cinema in the country has fed the public with "bad acting". The 'Parched' star says most of the good actors in the film industry come from a solid training background but also lauds the younger stars like Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt for bringing realism in their roles.

"What training does is, it makes you aware of what good acting is. I feel there is a difference between trained and untrained actors. It does show on screen. But that distinction is something I think in our country the 'aam junta' doesn't understand," Tannishtha told PTI.

"We have fed them with bad acting in mainstream cinema for years. Now some of the stars like Ranbir, Ranveer and Alia, they are very good. They are stars but very good actors also. They bring in certain kind of realism." The 36-year-old actress, who has worked in both, international and Hindi cinema, says Bollywood follows a particular template of acting.

"With due respect to all our stars, they have played themselves, whoever or whatever they have done, they are still themselves. That is the style of acting Bollywood has always followed. You see the effort, you don't become the character. That effortlessness needs training." Tannishta, however, is aware that while good actors might land up excellent critically acclaimed projects, the side effect to that is the stereotype which gets built around them. "It is difficult to break," Tannishta says when asked about stereotypes.

"This whole typecasting thing is very difficult. Some of my friends like Nawazuddin and I always discuss that how do you break that. But some of us, in the art-house zone, have been lucky to get different roles. I have played everything from a physics teacher to a villager and now, this role in 'Lion'." Based on the non-fiction book "A Long Way Home" by Saroo Brierley, "Lion" has received six Oscar nominations at the 89th Academy Awards. Tannishta was shooting for "Unindian" in Australia, when a mail popped up from director Garth Davis, asking her to be a part of "Lion" in a role which he wrote specially for the actress and Nawazuddin.

"This is the only thing which is not there in the book. He said he had created something which we both had never done before and asked us to read the script. When I read it, I felt I could do something interesting with it." In the film which stars Dev Patel, Priyanka Bose and Deepti Naval, Tannishta plays a grey character, a departure from the roles she is otherwise offered.

"Everyone always casts me as the good girl, all the time. This is the first time people have seen me do something not that and that's the only reason I wanted to do this. It makes me happy that people who have seen the film, say it was surprising to see me in that role." "Lion" will release in India on February 24.