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Woman Up S3 EXCLUSIVE: Sai Tamhankar on breaking stereotypes & her thoughts on wearing bikini onscreen
Sai Tamhankar opens up about her thoughts on breaking stereotypes, being boxed into a category and more.
Sai Tamhankar, our latest guest on Woman Up S3, is a widely acclaimed actress who is known for her work in Marathi, Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil film and television industries. In Bollywood, she has featured in films like Love Sonia and more recently, Mimi. While we touched upon a lot of subjects, we asked Sai about a resolution she made a few years back about not doing intimate scenes or wearing revealing clothes onscreen, and what made her decide to portray the role of Savita Bhabhi in the 2020 Marathi film ‘Ashleel Udyog Mitra Mandal’. We further asked if her onscreen characters were ever confused for her offscreen personality and if she ever feared being categorized.
Talking about her resolution, and her role as Sabita Bhabhi, Sai Tamhankar said, "First of all, I do not believe in resolutions. People who cannot train their minds, need resolutions. I am very good at training my mind. I don't think I have said this on camera ever. To be very honest, I never look at it as breaking a taboo, or breaking stereotypes. What I am looking for, as a person, as an actor, is different characters, variety of characters, and while doing so, if stereotypes are getting broken, I am very glad. But breaking stereotypes, is not my focus. But I am very glad they are being broken, you know."
Talking about her experience of wearing a bikini on-screen, the actress further added, "When I wore a bikini, surprisingly, Marathi fraternity welcomed the gesture with open arms and open hearts. I also got some criticism. Something which I am comfortable with, my family is comfortable with, I think that's all that matters to me. I like characters of all shades. I mean, why portray, only whites, or only blacks, I think our whole life is in-between."
When asked if people ever mistook the characters she played on celluloid for her real personality, Sai said, "Oh, it happens. Probably they think, sometimes when a woman portrays strong characters, or characters which are inhibition-less, I think, yes, 5 - 10 percent of people might think that, 'okay, she might be like this in her real life'. I have set up boundaries - one cannot contact me after 10 pm for any work. If it is 11 pm, and that person calls me, may it be anybody, they have it from me then. I think, it's very important for you also to conduct yourself accordingly, and I think, I do conduct myself the way I want to."
We asked Sai if she ever worried about being boxed into a category. To this, she replied, "Oh yes. I was very scared after Hunter, because, all I was offered was, 'sexually depressed, sexually oppressed, sexually this, sexually that’. For three years, I was looking for something which was different from Hunter, and which would come, but it took three whole years, and then I got Love Sonia. But after Love Sonia, Mimi, people have now started realizing that, 'okay, she can do this, she can do that, as well.' And I would like to maintain this choice of variety, that I have always vouched for."
Watch Sai Tamhankar’s interview with Pinkvilla below:
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