Acclaimed actress Tisca Chopra recently spoke out about facing ageism in the film industry. In a candid interview with Galatta Plus, Chopra revealed a disheartening experience where she was replaced by "someone younger" just days before a film shoot.
The Taare Zameen Par actress recalled, “In 2016, there was a particular director who strung me along for a bit of time. We started doing prep, costumes, lines, and everything. About four days before the shoot, he said they were going with someone younger. Then, he tried to fob it off by saying it’s the call of the producers. But I could see that it was just… I didn’t want to hear that anymore.” Tisca Chopra says, “It’s a very sad world we’re living in” The actress further expressed her disappointment with the film industry's focus on youth over experience. She elaborated, “By that time, I also got a sense of the fact that there were things going on in my head that I had been ignoring for some time. I’ve had the benefit of working with wonderful directors and learning from them by watching their process and imbibing that.” She added, “If youth and beauty are the only two things that are attractive in a particular market… my insides rebelled against that. If they are interested only in the young and beautiful, it’s a very sad world we’re living in.” Tisca Chopra turns frustration into creation This experience, however, also ignited a creative fire in Chopra. She decided to take control of her narrative and explore filmmaking. She revealed, “I had been doing this piece called Chutney at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai. It was based on Bhisham Sahni’s story. It too had morphed into something else by that time in my head. So, I narrated that to a few, very close people and we came up with the story and wrote it. The protagonist was neither good-looking nor young. Nor did she have any other privileges. She was not well-spoken and didn’t have a male heir or a child. And yet, she controls the narrative in that story.”
Speaking of the professional front, Tisca was last seen in Netflix’s original film Murder Mubarak, directed by Homi Adajania.
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