After delivering memorable performances in web shows like Paatal Lok and Escaype Live, Swastika Mukherjee can be currently seen in Criminal Justice 3, helping Madhav Mishra (Pankaj Tripathi) with one of his toughest cases. The third season of the legal drama headlined by Tripathi sees a helpless mother (Mukherjee) trying to save her son who is accused of murder and is also on the receiving end of the media’s wrath. Talking about the same, Mukherjee told News18 Showsha in an exclusive conversation that we are living in a time where media and society criminalize people even before the legal system has started its process.
The actress, who has cemented her place in the Bengali industry and has been active for almost 20 years, talked about broadening her horizons and also shared that the ‘national platform’ is not just limited to Bollywood. In the candid chat, she also shared her insight into what she considers ‘bold’ roles, the recent trend of boycotting films, and more.
Excerpts from the interview:
Season 3 of Criminal Justice revolves around media trials, something we have seen increasing in this industry as well.
We are living in a time where media and society together criminalize and convict and put people behind bars, even before the legal system has started its process. We see headlines and we see people already stamped as either a victim, a convict or a criminal. It’s already done even before the trial starts and there’s so much hatred and apathy towards the person. Fact-checking doesn’t happen. I hear something about you and without even actually making the effort to check the facts and the reality, I can put up a post. And it will be picked up by five other media houses and the trial starts. It’s a problem that is happening in our society. It’s important that the media also becomes sensitive and responsible, allows the law to take its course and allows the judiciary to deal with such problems other than putting pressure on the entire system because the country has gone mad.
Following Paatal Lok’s success, you have done a couple of Hindi web series and films. How have things changed?
With the advent of OTT, a huge door has opened for actors who are not from Mumbai, and from other industries. We are getting the chance to showcase our performances and talent on the national platform. It’s just that feeling of doing better work and good work, exploring and growing as an actor. I’ve been working in my industry for almost 22 years. If I stick to where I am, I’ll be stagnated. If I’m working outside my comfort zone, I would definitely grow as an actor and become better. And then there are so many other characters I can play who are not predominantly Bengali. My greed as an actor to do good work is being taken care of.
In one of your old interviews you mentioned that compared to South or Punjabi actors, Bengali actors do not get that kind of popularity or opportunity in the Hindi industry until they make it big in Bollywood. Has that changed?
It’s changed because when it was only about films, the chances, opportunities and possibilities were really low. You can have only so many characters in a film which has a duration of two hours. But now with OTT platforms, there is a larger scope of content. It’s not only about actors, it’s a growth in every department. So the more content is created, the more there will be the need for good actors. A lot of people from Bengal are doing so much work now on the national platform. Every time I’m getting an opportunity I don’t want to repeat myself but do something different.
A lot of actors are getting to do things, not just Bengali to Hindi industry but someone like Jisshu Sengupta who is also working on multiple films in south industries. So that integration seems to have happened at some level.
If we talk about the national platform it just becomes about Bollywood but people working in Malayalam films or Tamil or Telugu or Assamese film is also a part of the national platform. It’s not just Bollywood.
You are pretty uninhibited with your roles in Bengali cinema, like Shah Jahan Residency, etc. Do you get such roles in Hindi? Does the bold image follow you here?
I think we use the word bold in a very shallow manner. I would say Avantika Ahuja (Mukherjee’s Criminal Justice character) is also very bold. She is a mother who got Madhav Mishra, the ‘People’s Lawyer’ on board and she is fighting for her son. She is the face of the struggle, who is doing everything for her child. So bold doesn’t only depict wearing a bikini on screen or playing a rebel, or somebody who is breaking the norms of the society. We tend to use the word bold only if you’re doing all this. But a mother who is taking care of her household, finances, taking care of a child’s education and well-being, is also doing something very bold. You really don’t need to wear skimpy clothes to prove that you’re bold.
If you want to make it a cliche, of course, the character I played in Escaype Live is also very bold. She’s a woman who is dark and wants to get things done her way. She has a negative shade and is an opportunist. She molests other women. If you look at the character, that’s also bold.
We are also seeing the trend of boycotting actors, and films increasing. What do you think the industry can do to fight back?
I haven’t reached there, nationally to really think and decide what an industry can do. I think these trends come and go like many others. When this social media hype happened, everybody was getting affected by trolls. I have been very active in replying back to trolls or taking care of whatever mud was thrown at me. But now I’m just so bored with it. I think the people who troll also have become bored with it. So the amount of trolling that used to happen, maybe, three years back, has also gone down. I think now that the ‘ban’ spree is on and everybody is banning everybody. I think it will also run its course and die in a matter of a year or so.
