Daily Times

While talking about Cheeni Kum, Tabu said her role was so close to her real self that it was “Tabu playing Tabu… almost… except that it hasn’t happened in real life”. Acclaimed actor Tabu says she has no regrets about not getting married. Tabu, known for movies as different as Maqbool, Chandni Bar, Cheeni Kum, Haider, took part in a talk with Mayank Shekhar, Festival Director of Jagran Film Festival (JFF), on the gala’s opening day in New Delhi on Friday.

Asked if she is single, Tabu, 46, said: “I’m as single as…. Next question.” An audience member questioned the actor on the ‘single’ status further, asking Tabu about the one moment she felt being single was the best thing she did. “Every moment,” Tabu said without a second thought.

“Because I don’t know the other side, right? So how can I say this is better or that is better. Only when I experience that, then I will understand that if this was good or if this is good. I’ve never been married, so I don’t know how good or bad it is,” she added.

What about the one moment when she regretted not being married? “Ummmmm….,” Tabu said, maintaining a long silence. Never at all? “Not as yet,” she said
with a smile.

Do you see yourself getting married at some point of time? “These are all questions I have no answer to… That’s the problem,”
Tabu said.

The hour-long conversation covered her journey in the movie industry and some of her career’s landmark films which are being showcased as part of a retrospective at JFF, a movie gala which will travel across 18 cities.

While talking about Cheeni Kum, in which she plays a 34-year-old software engineer who falls in love with a 64-year-old chef, Tabu said her role was so close to her real self that it was “Tabu playing Tabu… almost… except that it hasn’t happened in real life”.

“I can so be that person, and I understand her totally, I get her, and that’s why I think I could do that. I was convinced of their romance. Also, of course, you have to give 200 per cent credit to the man (Amitabh Bachchan) who I was romancing, and that’s why it was that much convincing.

“So it goes to say that if somebody like that, in that space, with that vibe, with that everything, then I am absolutely okay with it. For her (the character), I think the age is not the barrier, it’s what she strikes with that person… So yes, I could be that person.”

Published in Daily Times, July 2^nd 2018.