Konkona Sen Sharma is returning to acting after dabbling in direction for what she calls ‘one-and-a-half films’. The actress is currently starring in the Netflix web series Killer Soup. The Abhishek Chaubey dark comedy sees her as Swathi, a housewife who dreams of opening her own restaurant and will go to any length to achieve the dream, even replacing her husband with her lover (both Manoj Bajpayee). In a candid chat with DNA, Konkona opens up about the fun aspect of playing such a character and despite the murderous traits, why she finds her relatable.
The women in Abhishek Chaubey’s stories always have a lot of agency, even when it comes to straying into the morally grey zone. Right from Ishqiya to Udta Punjab, the filmmaker has always ensured this and Killer Soup’s Swathi is no different. Talking about playing her, Konkona says, “It was a lot of fun. The way I see it from Swathi’s point of view is that she is a greater goal, a larger cause, which is her restaurant. She has done everything, raised kids, worked, climbed the social ladder, and now she wants to do this for herself, at a slightly later age, when she is done with the domesticity. Many women can relate to that, doing something for themselves. But life and patriarchy get in the way. In that sense, I myself could relate to her a lot.”
Swathi’s character is not averse to breaking a few eggs to make her proverbial omelette, but Konkona does not see the character as good or bad. “We are not very interested in the morality of it because then it becomes very boring,” she says, adding, “When characters are being very goody-goody and earnest, it’s very boring. Honestly, in the early part of my career, I have played a lot of those – very earnest, morally upright.”
Actors have often said that longform content like web series allows them to delve deeper into their characters as compared to films. But Konkona says all that is immaterial if the writing is not good. “You can delve into your characters a lot with series but there is no end to that. You can keep doing episodes and episodes but in the end, your writing has to be so good that comes through in less. You don’t always have to do season upon season,” says the actress.
Killer Soup, directed and created by Abhishek Chaubey, also stars Nasser, Anula Navlekar, Kani Kusruti, Sayaji Shinde. The eight-episode series premieres on Netflix from January 11.
