Actor Meera Chopra recently joined NewsX for a special conversation as part of NewsX India A-List. In the exclusive interview, the actor opened up about not just her latest web series The Tattoo Murders, in which she shares the screen space with Tarun Virwani but also about her experience of playing a cop on-screen and her journey in the Hindi Film Industry as well as Tollywood.
Talking about her latest web series The Tattoo Murders on Disney + Hotstar, Meera said, “The Tattoo Murders was previously called Kamathipura. As the name suggests, it’s about prostitution, drugs, mafia, and also about police. How they work hand in glove with the whole system. The script was very raw. We have heard about prostitution in India but we have not seen much stuff in Bollywood or on Indian television on prostitution. It’s strange because it’s illegal but still it happens in such a legal way in our country. The script itself was very different, very raw and i was being offered a role, which i had not attempted before. I had never even imagined myself in the role of a cop because you always have a bucket list of roles you want to do but cop was never on my list for some reason. I had never even imagined it. Everything about it was very exciting and that made me sign the show.”
When asked about her experience of playing a cop on-screen and if she did any special prep for the role, she responded, “I couldn’t do any physical prep for it but i did saw a lot of movies, especially Bollywood movies where the main protagonist is female cop, like i saw Gangajal, both Mardani’s. In Gangajal, Priyanka did a role of cop and then i saw Drishyam, so my reference point was these Tabu in Drishyam. The way she was walking, her body language and everything, so i wouldn’t say that i tried copying that but that was a very strong referral point.”
On sharing the screen space with Tanuj Virwani in The Tattoo Murders, Meera expressed, “First of all, Tanuj is younger than me. He is like a kid so i treated him like that. Ofcourse, he was fun to work with. Even he was playing the role of a crazy villian for the first time. The energy level of both of us was very high. We shot 80% of the show in Kamathipura and it is very difficult to get permission to shoot in Kamathipura. 90% of the show is Gorilla shoot, wherein we go with spy cameras without any unit. We didn’t have our staff with us. There were only 4-5 members with us when we were shooting. At times, it can be scary because Kamathipura is not an easy place to shoot. But, the energy levels of both of us was so high that every time the director would ask us that ‘Would you shoot without any permission?’ and we would like, ‘yeah, let’s do it.’ It was fun to work with him because we both were on the same page. There was no attitude problem. We both were equally excited about the show. Everything just fell into place when Tanuj came on board.”
Encapsulating her journey so far in Bollywood as well as Tollywood, Meera said, “Both the journeys have been very different. The working styles are very similar in both the industries. But, in South, things were very easy for me. My first movie became an instant hit and whatever films i did after that, were served to me on platter. When it came to Hindi, it was totally opposite. The struggle was crazy difficult. It is really not easy to get what you want here. The competition in Bollywood is humongous. I am still struggling to get what i want in Bollywood. Things became easier after Section 375. But, before that, at times, it would be depressing. You would start questioning yourself. Do you want to continue or do you just want to give it up. Bollywood was a battle emotionally but now things are becoming easier and easier. For that, i always say that you need to be really strong. You need to have crazy passion to be in this industry. Otherwise, it is really easy to breakdown.”
Check out the entire conversation here: