Tillotama Shome has been having her moment on OTT, especially after the success of Sudip Sharma’s crime thriller show Pataal Lok season 2. The actor has often talked about how it took her years of hard work and persistence to get to a point where the offers come to her. She’s not shied away from discussing the dry spells peppered all over her 20-year-plus-long career.
She recently opened up about her relationship with money. “A director I once worked with paid me very low. At the wrap party, we were all talking when someone asked me, ‘what would be something that you really are lusting for?’ I mentioned a particular car that cost a certain amount, and said, ‘If I do a film where I’m paid this much, I could buy that car.’ The director then said, ‘I’m so sorry to break this to you, but you’re never going to earn that kind of money. It’s unfair, but that’s how this industry is. You’re very talented, but unfortunately, you’ll never make that much.’ He said it in a tone that felt like he meant well — but it stayed with me,” said Tillotama.
She recalled in the interview with The Hollywood Reporter India how she proved the director wrong a few years later. “Then came my next film, which was everything I could dream of creatively. I knew I’d never get a role that good again, but I still negotiated for four months. I fought for the money, and eventually, I got paid double the amount I’d mentioned at that party. When the contract was finalized, I messaged that director and said, ‘By the way, I just closed a deal and was paid this much. Thought you should know before you tell another actor what they can or can’t do.’ That moment meant a lot to me,” added Tillotama, choking up and wiping her tears.
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Tillotama made her debut as the house help Alice in Mira Nair’s 2001 film Monsoon Wedding. She subsequently appeared in films like Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai (2012), Anup Singh’s Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost, Konkona Sensharma’s directorial debut A Death In The Gunj (2017), Saket Chaudhary’s Hindi Medium (2017), Rohena Gera’s Sir (2018), Homi Adajania’s Angrez Medium (2020), and Konkona’s segment The Mirror in Netflix India anthology Lust Stories 2 (2022). She’s also starred in shows like Delhi Crime season 2 (Netflix India, 2022), The Night Manager (Disney+ Hotstar, 2023), Kota Factory: Season 3, and Tribhuvan Mishra: CA Topper (Netflix India, 2024).
