Exclusive: Amruta Subhash On Preparing For A “Coming Of Age For A Middle-Class Woman” Role In ‘Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd.’
Very few shows these days are able to come up with truly original concepts. I feel like showmakers have decided that there is a formula to appease the masses and that is the same thing we are consuming over and over again. And to be honest, I don’t see anyone getting appeased by these ghise-pite concepts. So I was very excited to watch the trailer of Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd. by Zee5 in collaboration with TVF. The series was created by Arunabh Kumar and Apoorv Singh Karki, and it was directed by Apoorv Singh Karki and written by Abhishek Srivastava and Swarnadeep Biswas. Amruta Subhash, Yamini Das, Anup Soni, Anjana Sukhani, and Anandeshwar Dwivedi star in the series.
And as you can imagine, I was overjoyed and excited by the prospect of interviewing the lovely Amruta Subhash who plays the lead, Suman in the show. And here are some of her insightful answers to my questions about female portrayal in media, female entrepreneurs and preparing for her role.
Q. I felt like this show depicts one of the major problems that the women of our society face. As a woman yourself, were there aspects of Suman’s life that you relate to?
Yes, as you rightly said there are many aspects where Suman’s situation is completely different from my situation. I have a lot of freedom than Suman had in her life. As you said, Suman has been very much dependent first, on her father than on her husband. I have had more freedom to do whatever I want to do, very career-oriented. Suman is not as ambitious as I am, for her, her family and kids are everything. But this thing you know, of feeling that we are incomplete without a partner, is somewhere inside every one of us. And by “partner”, I mean someone else. We need someone else to feel complete which I also had and the feeling comes and goes inside me. So, this belief that Suman gave me is that you are sufficient for your own self. This is a very strong belief coming from a woman who is a housewife, who never envisioned a life apart from her family, who never thought about herself. She starts this business with the intention of getting her children back but it eventually moved to want to make good achaar which her clients will like. So she comes back to hold creativity and she’s an illiterate woman, she shows her motives through her actions, she won’t talk about it or express it. So she’s not someone who will talk about it. Suman won’t talk about her life, she will live her life and show you.
What is common between her and me is that even I used to believe that I need someone else to make me happy. I’ll be complete if I have a husband, I’ll be complete if I have kids, I’ll be complete if I have money. But these things, if I want them they can compliment me. But I can be happy without getting married. I am married right now. But a woman can be happy without being just by being herself, being on her own, without having kids, maybe. So these tick marks. We are taught to feel like we are complete only if we have these things and sometimes we don’t even want them, but we just do it because it is a societal notion. This mentality even I had, at one point in time, which Suman helped me come out of.
It is not a wrong thought (wanting a partner) and if you want, you must have one. But you shouldn’t be dependent on that. Finally, Suman has to leave all those dependencies because the situation is like that. She could have chosen a bitter path thinking “Oh why am I so alone? Why is life like this? Why did Dileep do this to me?” And that’s not wrong. That is also human that you’re angry with that person for doing all those things to you. But then what kind of life do you want? You can immerse in that bitterness forever but then what kind of life do you have? You only have one life. Suman taught me to let go of certain things and surrendering to life.
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Q. You have also worked in Marathi as well as the Hindi entertainment industry. Do you see a difference in the depiction of women in both?
Oh, Nice question! I don’t think that language-wise it is different because I’ve played some very rural characters. We look at modernity from a very narrow mindset. We women might be doing certain modern things like being career-oriented but that doesn’t mean we are modern in our thinking. I have portrayed some women in the Marathi language as well, in my regional language as well where they have tried to do some out-of-the-box things, but they are illiterate. It is not Marathi but you can take the example of Lily who is a prostitute in Bombay Begums. She has done some very out-of-the-box things. Likewise, Suman, I would say. Though she comes from a typical kind of mindset. Finally, what she does do? She is not even bitter about her husband. So that is what makes her modern for me. It makes her literate for me. So I don’t think it is language-oriented but it is the approach towards the script and towards the character, how one wants to tell the story. And what are their views about modernity?
Someone might think that if I’m smoking then I am modern but that is something you’re doing externally. Now, you can smoke if you want to but that doesn’t necessarily make you modern. It’s something inside you. It’s the inner freedom. Externally you can wear and do whatever you want but if that freedom is not there inside then it is pointless. It is not language-oriented, it is about who is writing the script, where does that person stand? Whether she’s a Maharashtrian, whether she’s a Hindi speaker or an English-speaking person. Where does she stand? That is what will decide the character’s freedom and whether she’s truly modern or not.
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Q. Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd. also portrays what seems to be an adorable and wholesome saas-bahu relationship; something which is rarely seen in Indian shows and movies. Why do you think that trope hasn’t been broken yet? And do you think it’s high time that we do so?
I think it is generational trauma which is passed from one generation to another. You know like my mother-in-law troubled me so I will trouble my daughter-in-law. There is this thing, if I get trouble, I will give trouble. Like if I get troubled, I get that “right” to trouble you. But somewhere, it has to be broken, right? And that happens in some good stories. That’s the base of the story of Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd.; that this typical generational, traumatic relationship has been portrayed really uniquely here.
She (Suman’s mother-in-law) is like my friend, my mother, my business; she’s the light of my life because she has this sense of humour. And Yamini Das you have to watch her to believe it, she has done such an amazing job. With the kind of positivity and freshness she brings to my life, I’ve nothing else to look forward to. She’s pushing me to you know live. She knows what I’m going through. That’s what she says, “mene Sumaniya ko tootthe dekha hai.”
And the other woman (Manisha) is also not typical. The line, “jo toottha hai vahi joodtha hai.” is fantastic and beautiful. So the other woman saying that something good will come out of her. The most beautiful thing, I have witnessed through this series is the relationship between Manisha and Suman. Even in reality, they would be enemies. Right? And it’s always shown no matter what the man has done, he is good but the women are enemies. Here, the man isn’t an enemy either, he hasn’t been portrayed like that. So every character has this humane side to them. That’s the best part of the writing, thanks to Arunabh Kumar and Apoorv Singh Karki.
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Q. Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd. shows the struggles one has to face in order to start a business. Having played this character, what do you think is the biggest challenge that female small business owners face in running their business?
Things are changing for them but at the same time, things are also difficult for them because I have seen… Men don’t like to take orders from women. For example, one of my female friends was starting a new cafe and her husband was supporting her. He would just go with her to check the carpenters doing some work. The carpenters would look at the husband and ask him what to do. She’s she owns that piece and she will tell them what she wants but the carpenter will keep looking at the husband. The husband told me that he stopped going with her. She was giving his instructions but he didn’t like taking them from a woman.
He doesn’t like taking instructions from a movement. I’m so small example. Yeah, goes on so many levels than women have to. They have to deal with it. Sometimes they are angry. Sometimes you have to jump people at Beth’s idea. Why don’t you just take a simple dress-up and say, look, if she’s telling me something which is your boss? So, being a woman as a boss first, When are going very, very top positions and straight, women directors that are both with most great human directors as well. And but I still see that sometimes, you know, like the other day I was looking at the moon director and the video assistant has some problem and she want to stop here and she’s like, but what’s happening? Why is it? Why is it? Why is it not working? It’s happening to the money videos, describing what I’m really saying.
Women have to either get angry or charm people. Why can’t you just take orders the same way you would take from a man? Women are getting to higher positions now which is great. And I have worked with some great female directors but I still see this happening. The other day I was working with a female director and she got angry at the video assistant and the assistant got angry and said, Cause if I may be right over us that this maybe he would have just taken it anywhere else in, “I know but that’s not my problem.” He would not have tolled back if it was a male director and apologised. We as actors were baffled by his reaction because she is our boss, you can’t talk to her like that. That really disturbs me, sometimes that some men still don’t like to take orders from women.
Let me just come back to our show and tell you; Shukla, ji’s character doesn’t have that kind of ego. He respects women and he respects Suman. He does other questionable things as a man. Suman creates an environment where she is respected as a female boss. She doesn’t have to enforce that thing but fortunately, she has a better environment.
Q. If you were to start your own business, what would you want it to be?
Well, I would like to be a filmmaker someday. It is a creative business. The business I do will also have some creating in it. Suman also creates achaar, right? I also want to write certain things so my business would be something in the films. So that I can create and tell stories.
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Q. You’ve worked in both films and in OTT. Which one do you find more fulfilling as an actor and why?
Actually more fulfilling as an actor, theatre. OTT and films both have this camera in front of me so the experience is pretty similar. But in the theatre, the audience is sitting there and you can feel the lights, vibe and energy. The audience is sitting there and whether they are clapping, liking it, disliking it, they come and hold your hands afterwards and are in tears, you can see it. I have had some miraculous experience with theatre. I have gone to perform with a fever and the fever has disappeared when I am on stage and it has come back once I am off. Theatre has the kind of power over me. It is my home, it is where I started and I have learned a lot at that home which I still carry on screen. Even my guru, Naseeruddin Shah hasn’t left theatre and he has been observing my career. So he will say that a movie or series is good but will always ask when I am doing theatre and coming back. Currently, I am doing a play also and that keeps me alive as an actor.
Theatre also helps me look at a character as a whole and study the character graph in totality. In movies you will shoot the end first, then the beginning. But in theatre, you see the character’s story in one graph. And when that is clear you get habituated to looking at a character as a whole which helps you on-screen.
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Q. What message do you hope Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd. will send to your audience?
Sure sure. The best thing about TVF shows is that they have a message but they aren’t peachy. And that’s the best thing about this show. As I told you, Suman doesn’t talk about herself, she lives her life and that life is a message in itself. But if we have to translate it into some words because we’re talking about it, her life will be a message for you, of course, but the message would be that many of us know how to achieve but very few of us know how to let go. She will teach you that. Because letting go of our past which is not helping us is ruining and diluting our present to a great extent. And very few people can achieve letting go of that past and having a pure present and enjoy what the present moment has to offer you, and eventually, Suman reaches there and that is the greatest message. Because many of us know how to achieve fame, money, everything but this is something we can learn from her.
Q. I feel like Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd. breaks a lot of tropes, from showing a middle-aged woman in a coming-of-age story to having a healthy saas-bahu relationship. Was it difficult for you to act in a show where a lot of the plot points are never seen before?
Yeah, this is a beautiful question. Thank you for this question because you gave me a different perspective that this is indeed a coming-of-age story for a middle-aged woman. Because we tend to think that everything has ended for a middle-aged woman up and she has to do is wait for her grandchildren to come whatever she has to do for them. But no, at that age, something new and something so exciting can happen and that is more challenging. Because when you’re a teenager you have these dreams but when you become middle-aged you start living through your children. And you think that your children will get married and their children will come. You start living through others.
That is when she (Suman) comes back to herself. It is a coming of age for a middle-aged woman and going through that was difficult because sometimes I used to go the typical route of becoming sad, becoming bitter, becoming angry or becoming rebellious. Apoorv Karki set the tone. And before that Arunabh Kumar also contributed. On the content level also Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd. is very out of the box. It seems as though it is in the box but it is out of the box. Suman can look like an average woman but she is not. When I read in the beginning that she’s on a bicycle I was like, “What? A divorcee, a lonely woman on a bicycle?” There only they shook me up!
I have a film named Killa which is a coming of age for a teenager where they are shown riding a bicycle to a fort and I am doing that exact thing but at my age. So the content creators are amazing for doing that because the visual is different. A middle-aged woman going on a gents bicycle. Also, Apoorv Singh Karki set the tone of the character. He would ask me to go subtler because I would typically be self-sympathetic at times because you are used to seeing these characters in a particular way. But Suman herself is not self-sympathetic. He would constantly take me out of that mindset. She is also seen making fun of her mother-in-law, calling her “buddhiya” and asking her to walk faster. So the box is the same but the characters themselves are doing something completely different. And that is because Apoorv Singh Karki set that tone.
