Interview: Tanisha Mukherjee
Born into a family that has practically given Bollywood its good name, it is hard to find something Tanisha Mukherjee has not achieved, experienced or witnessed during her 31-plus years on this Earth. After all, her grandfather was a popular poet and film director, and her grandmother was one of the greatest actresses of early Indian cinema. Oh, and her mother was equally influential, helping set the standard for how to be a powerful yet versatile female actor. If that was not enough, she is the niece of another great Bollywood actress – Nutan – who also left her mark on Indian cinema.
The familial relations do not stop there either. Her older sister is the ever-so-popular award-winning actress, Kajol, while her brother-in-law is another Bollywood great, Ajay Devgan. Adding to all this was her one-time romantic interest, Uday Chopra, coincidentally brother to Aditya Chopra and the son of one of Bollywood’s greatest filmmakers in Yash Chopra.
And, just for kicks, Tanisha’s famous cousin is none other than Rani Mukherjee.
Okay, we can officially say, due to her extensive ties to Indian cinema, Tanisha has seen it all. Heck, she has even starred in movies featured in four different languages – Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu.
Great as all of her experiences and familial connections may be, there are three things she has yet to accomplish, and she did not shy away from sharing her thoughts on those issues when she spoke with Buzzine Bollywood in an exclusive interview at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip, just hours before she would take the stage as host of the 2009 Miss Showbiz India USA beauty pageant.
Actually, since the interview, Tanisha already knocked one of those three things off her To Do List – hosting a beauty pageant show.
“While I’ve done an award show, I’ve never hosted a pageant before,” Tanisha sheepishly told Buzzine on the final weekend of August, wearing a stunningly shiny gold gown as she took a few moments from preparing for her hosting duties in order to talk with the magazine. “I’m looking forward to this. I think all the women here today are beautiful and are bound to achieve great things. I certainly hope they can use this experience to open doors.”
Thanks to her family background, Tanisha never really had to worry about whether the right doors would be open. In fact, there were probably no closed doors for her, considering her Bollywood heritage that is now almost 70 years in the making. Perhaps that heritage will help her find the open doors for the two other things she wants to add to her already deep resume – international cinema and starring in a film alongside her mother, Tanuja.
“I haven’t shared a screen with my mother yet, but it would be something I would love to do at some point,” Tanisha humbly said about the prospects of working with Tanuja. “She’s done so many great things for Indian cinema and has been a great inspiration to me (and Kajol).”
Perhaps Tanisha can rely upon that inspiration to meet her third goal – starring in an international production. While she has already mastered Bollywood and catered to regional audiences with films in Telugu, Tamil and Bengali, she would definitely love to add another feather in her cap for working on a project outside of India.
“I’m definitely open to work outside India,” Tanisha frankly stated. “I think cinema in general is becoming more international. I think we’ll see people crossing over and working on more global projects.”
Yet, crossover or not, what ultimately matters is the quality of the script, not the quantity of the resumé. After all, since debuting on the big screen in the 2003 Hindi film, Sssshhh, Tanisha has worked with several big-name Indian actors, such as Bobby Deol, Sunjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan in Tango Charlie, Amitabh Bachchan, Abishek Bachchan and Katrina Kaif in Sarkar, Uday Chopra in Neal N Nikki, and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Sarkar Raj, among others. Clearly, despite her familial ties, Tanisha has a nose for finding the right projects to work on.
“As any good actor, I’m always looking for qualitative work,” she added. “I’m not currently working on anything right now, but I’m not done yet. In the end, it doesn’t matter where the work is or who wrote the script, as long as it is well-thought-out and creative.”
It is a qualitative experience she hoped transferred over to the women she was about to introduce a few hours later at the Miss Showbiz India USA pageant, hoping each contestant wound find fortune, success and happiness as they each pursue their hopes and dreams.
“It’s been a great experience for me,” she said about her work in cinema. “Hopefully many of the girls here today can do great things as well.”
