Kalki Koechlin on new film Goldfish and wanting to do a biopic and action film

You are going from playing Faiza, the other woman in the web-series Made in Heaven who is negotiating a foothold in an evolving relationship to playing a belligerent daughter dealing with an ailing mother in Goldfish, with releases within weeks of each other.

I mean, when it rains, it pours. Either nothing is going on, it’s a desert, or now it's like everybody wants me to post and do something on social media, but there's just one of me. I'm also trying to be a mother and while it’s many things happening at once, I'm trying to enjoy it all because it comes rarely — maybe once in four years. I'm very happy that it's happening. We didn't shoot for these at the same time so it's not a problem for an actor to be very different in one from the other. Actually, I like that there are releases close together.

What does your forthcoming slate include?

There is Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, which is directed by a new director Arjun Singh. I'm cast opposite Siddhant Chaturvedi in that. It’s a commercial script, but on a very strong, very relevant subject. There are some others listed online but a couple of those, such as Emma and Angel and Kaash, never released.

Is there any role in your repertoire that you're particularly proud of, a part that really challenged you?

There are a few, but the obvious one is Laila in Margarita With A Straw, mainly because of the amount of time I spent preparing for that. As actors, we don't get the luxury to do that very often. And that changes you. When you do something every day, over and over again, you carry the character inside you till it becomes muscle memory. You're just using your feelings and that's a lovely experience. I also loved the process I had in Shanghai (2012) with Dibakar Banerjee. That film didn't do so well, but it was a good process.

Have your filters and thought process for choosing a project changed over time?

I think I'll always have to be a little bit smart about balancing the commercial work so that I can finance the independent work. But I am much clearer now. Having a child has meant wanting to devote that much more time to being with her. It's become easier to say no now whereas earlier, you might have felt that the job might not be the best but you have to keep working. Now, I have to be fully convinced — artistically or commercially. If I had a choice, I would love to do a biopic. I keep putting it out there that someone should make a biopic on Sister Nivedita and I will play her, please. I would also love to do an action movie. I want to see more women on the screen kicking some ass, like Charlie's Angels (2000) or something. I also love comedy and feel I haven't explored that enough.

A still from Goldfish, playing in Indian theatres currently.

How did you get immersed in such an intimate yet heavy story about a complex parent-child relationship?

I think we had a lot of tools at our disposal because the writer Arghya Lahiri’s father had dementia, and he had a lot of stories and anecdotes to share. Deepti (Naval) was also a caregiver to her mother when she had dementia. So, I had these two people always available to answer any questions. Our director Pushan comes from a theatre background. He loves rehearsals and readings so we used to do those a lot. Pushan’s only request was that make sure Anamika’s accent is a proper Cambridge-Oxford accent, because she's a character who denies her Indianness. That's her journey of acceptance towards the end. Her father is British, she looks Caucasian, she does everything she can to be Caucasian and not Indian. He wanted to highlight that.

Besides the mother-daughter relationship, there is an interesting array of characters in this British neighbourhood. What was it like to work with this mix of actors?

Since we were shooting during the pandemic, we had a lot of online readings, which is awful, because you have that voice lag. Then you lose that rhythm then, and it is all about getting the timing right. Having said that, it was fantastic working with this supporting cast which includes Gordon Warnecke who was in My Beautiful Launderette (1985) and Bharti Patel who was in Doctors (2015-23) and Shanaya Rafaat has done a lot of theatre. I love the way Pushan showed that just because you're Indian, it doesn't mean you speak the same language or that you have the same religion or the same habits. And all of these characters — Laxmi, Tilly, Bobby — are from different parts of the subcontinent and they support each other because they are all far from home, but they have this common home. We tend to club Indians and Asians into one box but Goldfish kind of showed how each person is unique and different.