My onscreen image made me an easy target, says Surveen Chawla

Surveen Chawla is getting rave reviews over for her role of a rustic dancer-sex worker in Leena Yadav’s Parched. The journey to the top has not been an easy one for Surveen, who started with small Kannada films, about nine years ago.

“Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Punjabi I’ve done them all,” Surveen laughs at the thought of finally having overcome her period of struggle, overriding the trauma she faced, including — yes — the dreaded casting couch.

“I was propositioned, though luckily, I had the strength to turn down the offer to be ‘nice’ to the director, even if it meant losing a plum role,” sighs the actress. Strangely enough, she reveals, the offer came from the South. “I guess I’ve been lucky to meet the right kind of people in Bollywood,” she says. “I’ve never faced such sleazy offers in the Hindi film industry. Maybe I’ve been smart in my dealings, making sure no one gets the wrong signals. This happened in Tamil cinema, where I had already auditioned and bagged an important role. This was a big film and an important director, who couldn’t speak Hindi. Can you believe the man’s audacity The director had his friend call me and make the offer for me to sleep with the filmmaker! The friend told me it would only be until the film was made. I said thanks, but no thanks.”

Surveen admits it could be the nature of roles she plays, those of bold and unconventional women, which could be the issue. “I don’t know if my onscreen image makes me seen as an easy target,” she shrugs. “But I have to say, I was offered a whole lot of supposedly bold and sexy roles after I did Hate Story 2. The industry slots and tags you. I guess it was the reputation of the franchise; I did nothing hot or sleazy in the film. There was a lot of sex in the first and third part, but mine was a revenge story. And yet, after it, I was flooded with offers of cheesy, salacious roles.”

Away from home in Chandigarh, Surveen faced unending isolation and struggle in Mumbai during her initial years. “I was staying as a paying guest, where I was literally thrown out in the middle of the night because I used to return home at 2 am. I tried to explain I was shooting for my TV serials and had to return by an autorickshaw, but the landlady refused to listen. So I just left. It wasn’t easy to get my own place — I had no money, no help.”

Back home in Chandigarh, her conservative parents were worried for her. “When I was home, I’d look at women in the metropolis who smoked, drank and partied as wantons. But when I came to Mumbai, I did all these things, and didn’t think anyone had the right to call me a wanton,” she asserts.

Today, Surveen looks back at her experiences with tranquillity. “I’m grateful for every film I did and every TV serial I was a part of. I see them as stepping-stones into this amazing light that now shines on my career after Parched.”

Surveen is part of Anil Kapoor’s 24, season two, but she was hesitant about going back to TV. “People said, ‘oh you’re going back to television’, but I don’t see 24 as an average Indian soap. With due respect, I’d have stifled to death had I continued doing Indian television. The soaps are regressive and repetitive. I agreed to do 24 because it’s not run-of-the-mill and it’s opposite Anil Kapoor.”

She’s also grateful to Leena for her role in Parched. “When I bagged the role of Bijli, I saw it as an opportunity to move ahead in my career; it wasn’t an easy role. I play a nautanki dancer in a group that travels from one North Indian town to the other. My job is to entertain men with lowbrow dances and sex; I play the kind of woman wives dread having around,” she says.

The role left Surveen scarred, but satisfied. She says, “All us actresses bonded beyond our work. Leena is like a mother figure. It wasn’t easy portraying this sleazy life. It reminded me of what my own career could’ve ended up being if I hadn’t refused to compromise. Now, when I see the look of pride on my parents’ faces, I forget the years of struggle, when I didn’t know where my next meal came from. Between 2009 and 2010, I was completely jobless, with no offers. But I held on and Parched has quenched my thirst for the right recognition.”