Shweta Tripathi: ‘I Don’t Want Drama In My Life’

‘I like to celebrate who I am. I like to experiment, and am not afraid to make mistakes. You have to be your biggest cheerleader.’

If you pick up a phone and speak to Shweta Tripathi these days, you will instantly hear the excitement in her voice.

Known for her memorable performances in Mirzapur and Masaan, the actor is returning to where it all began: The theatre stage.

Her new play titled External Affairs is especially close to her heart as she pairs opposite her husband, Chaitanya Sharma.

As she gears up for this new chapter, Shweta talks about her equation with acting and how performing before a live audience offers a unique space to her.

“The stage has a way of stripping away vanity, and it only cares if you are truthful,” Shweta tells Mayur Sanap/Rediff.

What is External Affairs about?

External Affairs is a comedy about confusion. It’s about transactional relationships, technology, wokeness. Nowadays, we want to be woke, but are we actually woke?

It’s about a couple who is very cute and conventional. They are very appropriate and woke, but get a little boring because of that. They have exes who come into their lives; they are absolutely wrong, inappropriate and toxic, but they are exciting.

That is why there is this confusion: If a good person is boring and the wrong person is exciting, how do I choose who is right for me? What if I let the right person go? What if I choose the wrong person? The play addresses this.

You are returning to theatre after a long gap. How does it feel to be back on stage?

I am getting butterflies right now! It’s a live audience and I need to give my entire focus and attention to be on stage for 90 minutes without being distracted. That’s an hour and a half; I had not clocked what a big challenge this is!

I realised this is a good focus exercise and want to start meditation again so that I am able to do justice to what the writer has written and what the director wants.

Theatre is a brutally honest medium because there are no retakes. Does performing live make you feel more fearless or more vulnerable as an actor?

I think both, because performing for an audience is a different type of happiness.

When the audience is cheering and applauding you, and you get an adrenaline rush. You are living in the present, and cannot afford to be distracted. You have to be focused.

The stage has a way of stripping away vanity, and it only cares if you are truthful. The audience is very forgiving because they have come to support you and they are a member of your community.

When you are buying a ticket to the theatre, you are not just consuming entertainment, you are keeping a cultural heartbeat alive.

Do you actively chase this discomfort?

As an actor, I like to feel the different kind of emotions. For example, I have read The Artist’s Way (a book by Julia Cameron), and in that, they talk about ‘morning pages’.

I was doing that this morning and I was writing that what I enjoy about acting is the very human aspect of it. There are a lot of painful scenes that exist in society and we should be able to show that.

For example, we often say don’t cry. Why do we say that? We should definitely cry. Crying is healthy, it detoxes your emotions. Crying is also expressing yourself.

The same goes for jealousy or envy. You should not run away from your emotions. It’s important to understand yourself.

As an actor, the more I work, the more I am getting close to understanding myself as well as the society around me. I think that is what I am chasing.

When a character or scene becomes emotionally overwhelming, how do you detach from it?

It does get overwhelming, especially when are doing a drama genre. I want to keep drama for the screen, I don’t want drama in my real life. I want my life to be as Disney as possible!

All that pain and suffering I want to keep limited to my characters because I am a very emotional person.

I like to be happy, and I like to spread that joy off screen.

Neeraj Ghaywan has said this to Richa (Chadha), Vicky (Kaushal) and me during Masaan that actors are so lucky because we experience such different shades in one life. This is so true because I am getting to experience, say, Shalu (her Masaan character), or Golu (Mirzapur) whose lives are so different than mine.

You are sharing the stage with your husband in External Affairs. During rehearsals, did you discover any side of Chaitanya that surprised you?

He is very disciplined. Even during a heatwave, he was shooting outdoors and after coming home, he would go straight to the gym. I can’t do this at all! But it’s also really inspiring and motivating.

I am not saying this because this is an interview and we have to talk about how amazing our partners are, but he really is amazing.

I am grateful I married my favourite person in the world.

Whenever I want to rehearse or do anything, he is always there. He knows all his lines, and he knows my mine, too. That way, he is a great partner to have, personally and professionally.

Are there any relationship dramas or rom-coms that Chaitanya and you enjoy watching together?

We watch very different content. He is into podcasts, documentaries and sports and I, like everybody else, am watching Off Campus currently (Laughs).

When I am with him, I like to fool around. We feel like why are we not spending time together instead of being glued to screens. We talk about everything. We love going to the cinema hall. Recently, we watched The Drama, and Project Hail Mary.

From Masaan and Haraamkhor to Mirzapur and Gone Kesh, you have paved a career through unconventional roles. Do you think audiences are more accepting of non-traditional female characters?

Yes. That change is happening because we have more women representation. It is very important to be more inclusive. But I don’t think it is men’s fault, how a man can guess what is going on inside a woman’s mind?

Like, when I watching Off Campus, I didn’t know a woman writer had written it. I was wondering how the writer understood these characters so well. Then I was like, ‘Oh, a woman has written it, that’s why it is different.’

Your personal style is lovely. It is quirky, experimental, but is still very much you. What is the thought process behind your fashion choices?

People often put women in brackets. If there is a girl, she should be like this. If there is a cute girl, she should be cute in this way. We have a lot of archetypes.

But it shouldn’t be that way.

We are Kanya, we are Veera, we are Apsara, we are Rishika, we are Maa; we have a lot inside us, so why should we hide it?

What is a beautiful woman? What is a sexy woman? How is a heroine supposed to be?

How I am supposed to look on screen is not in my control, but when I am at events or outings, I want my audience to know me.

I have got a lot of love and respect from my audience. When they call me Golu Didi, I want to hug all of them. I am getting so much love, then why should I fit into a stereotype? In fact, why should anyone fit into one?

If there is a red carpet, they expect you to wear a gown. But I don’t want to follow these rules because they do not make sense to me.

I went to NIFT and have studied fashion for four years. That somewhere reflects both personally and professionally.

I like to celebrate who I am. I like to experiment, and am not afraid to make mistakes. You have to be your biggest cheerleader.

I cannot end this conversation without asking about Mirzapur: The Film. What can fans look forward to?

There’s a lot of excitement there. We just heard the BGM that is designed for the trailer. The boys have done a fabulous job. I have seen the work that’s in progress for the teaser and trailer. It’s a full thumbs up from me.

Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff