When she agreed to do Anurag Kashyap’s Paanch years ago, her friends and family were surprised. “They wondered why I was doing such a dark film.”
Anurag made an instant decision when he saw her at a party. “At the time I was dating my boyfriend Pankaj Saraswat, who is my husband now. We were at a friend’s party when Anurag came up to me and said, ‘I have to cast you in my film.’ ”.
The young actress didn’t take it too seriously till “he called me to sign me for Paanch and said, ‘I watched you dancing with such fire and passion that I decided you were perfect for the character in my film Paanch.”
Similarly, when the director cast her again, years later, for Ugly, he made his decision after he saw her sipping wine. She admits, “I was a little tipsy and he was seeing me as his character in Ugly.”
Later, while shooting, the reputation of a tippler preceded her. “On the character’s demand I was offered beer… When I went to the sets, production guys would ask me, ‘Kya lengi madam?’ I was astounded and used to say, ‘Subhah se thode na peene lagungi! Aur waise bhi mein peeakad thodi na hoon!’ (I am not a drunkard, I can’t start boozing early in the morning!).
But the uninhibited Tejaswini had no qualms about guzzling beer whenever required “and I must confess the scenes have really come out fabulous.
That one glass of beer brought out amazing performances which matched the character.” She adds, “I only hope Ugly does well in India. It has been released at festivals to much acclaim, all over the globe.”
Tejaswini discloses that on both occasions when Anurag offered her a film, she got pregnant soon after. “Yes , this is the second time I have conceived.
I was offered a role by Anurag in his earlier film, which I could not do owing to my pregnancy. Now I’m pregnant again and I am happy about it. Hope everything goes well this time.
Ugly seems to be lucky for me. I was going through a depressing time when Anurag offered me Ugly as I had just had a miscarriage. But no sooner did I join him after a couple of months than I got pregnant again!,” she says. We left the happy mother-to-be on that cheerful note…
