Exclusive | Tillotama Shome on 'Ikka' and Working with Sunny Deol: 'Gentlemen Like Him Are A Dying Breed'

In the upcoming Netflix courtroom drama, Ikka, Tillotama Shome plays Madhura, a rookie public prosecutor who appears to have no business facing a leading defence lawyer played by Sunny Deol in a high-profile murder trial. It is, she says, a David-and-Goliath situation on the surface. But underneath lays something more layered — a story about the entire ecosystem that surrounds powerful men and what a common person in that ecosystem does when the odds are stacked against them but a gut feeling is telling them take the shot.

"There are adventures and journeys you take on knowing that you're not best suited for it," Shome says. "But you have the job. What are you going to do with it now?"

It is not a question she is asking only about Madhura. She relates to it as one she has been asking herself for a good part of the last 25 years.

Shome started her journey through theatre as a means to stop her stammer, took a detour with a stint as a drama therapist at the Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York, and by this time had already made her film debut in Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding.

Now, over 50 projects deep into a career built not on industry access or social media follower metrics, but on an insistence to immerse oneself into different characters, Tillotama Shome sits down with THR India to discuss the human core of Madhura in Ikka, working with Sunny Deol and Akshaye Khanna, what success looks like to her after 25 years of acting, and the genre she's excited to step into with her next project.

What can you tell us about your character Madhura in Ikka?

So I play a new public prosecutor who lacks experience, who is pitted against a very experienced defence lawyer, played by none other than Sunny Deol. So it seems on the face of it like a David-Goliath, good versus evil kind of thing. But as you watch the film, there are more layers to it.

With an entire ecosystem built around powerful men, the film is not just a courtroom drama, which is certainly a big part of the film, but there's also all the collateral that gets affected by the proceedings in court.

Even Madhura, the character I play — you see her in court, but you also see her family life. You understand why this case is such a big deal for her, because she's never had to handle something of this enormity, and she knows who she's up against.

It was great to play a character who seems like the underdog — the one that is actually poised to fail — and despite that knowledge, what she would do to fight her best. I think that excited me about the part. There are adventures and journeys you take on knowing that you're not best suited for it. There could be someone better, stronger, more articulate, more intelligent who could do this job better than you — but you have the job. What are you going to do with it now?

What were some learnings from the sets of the project?

You're in a vast cast where actors are busy and have many other projects, so you have to be very flexible and nimble. That's something I really learned from Siddharth (P. Malhotra), our director — his capacity to deal with unseen challenges and pivot. Maybe we're set up for one scene and suddenly have to shoot an entirely different one. The sense of preparedness required, to do your homework and then be able to switch, was new for me. Sid's capacity to be calm, composed, take a minute and regroup was very inspiring. When the captain of a ship keeps his cool, you take your cues from that.

I also really loved seeing Sunny Deol go to that place. There's a moment in the trailer where he gets really angry, and the whole AD team, who are huge action hero buffs... their eyes would light up. I've never been part of this kind of high-octane energy. You could visualise the 'Bam! ''Boom!' — like being in a graphic novel coming alive. It was all so new for me.

I don't want my sense of self constrained by only one kind of grammar or storytelling. When the first line of a scene is already at this certain pitch, where do you go from there? How do you scaffold something at that tone? It was very technical and different.

How was it working with Sunny Deol, Akshaye Khanna and Dia Mirza?

Dia and I didn't have scenes together, unfortunately. I hope that's course corrected in the future.

Akshaye was very much to himself, and I understand that. Different actors have different processes. I'm very ha-ha hee-hee before a take; it helps me stay relaxed. As a younger actor, I used to stay silent and think that was what being serious looked like. I realised with time that I need to do what I need to do for my director's vision to come alive. For me right now, being as relaxed as possible before action gives the most spontaneous take. I never really got to interact with Akshaye except in character, which is absolutely fine.

With Sunny Deol, because I had more scenes together, I really liked how present he was, despite being quite shy and introverted. He's very generous as a co-actor, and a proper gentleman — a dying breed. He has that old-school charm of being completely confident in your own skin, and making others feel comfortable despite being a man of few words.

He went above and beyond in one scene when it was my close-up. A fly got into his eye, literally at the edge of it, and he still refused to call cut. I was shocked, but carried on because he hadn't called it. Afterwards I asked why, and he said that the take was so good he didn't want it spoiled. I would really like to have that kind of generosity and that awareness as an actor; to not lose it when you're in a position of power.

You've crossed the 50-projects mark. What does success look like to you now compared to when you started?

I don't think you should take any of these answers seriously. It's just what one feels today on a wet monsoon day, and tomorrow the answer to this question will be vastly different.

I feel like I've pushed myself into spaces I didn't have a natural talent for. That's how acting started — not to become an actor, but to challenge a sense of self that felt it couldn't talk without stammering. It's that same drive — if I'm told I'm a character actor and can't be part of a film like Ikka or a universe like Night Manager, that makes me want to do it even more. Early on, when I didn't get certain jobs because of Instagram followers or some other metric, I used to get really upset. But now it's a challenge. And I'm so happy that filmmakers and platforms don't care about my social media. It gives me hope.

I feel successful that I could be around for this long, and I would feel very successful if I can keep creating for the next 25 years. And I think that's about it. It's an industry like many others — nothing so special about it. But like many things that take time and patience — and not everybody gets rewarded for their patience, I know it's not an ideal world — I've been very lucky that I'm still here, and that filmmakers and platforms have trusted me with characters.

Are there roles you haven't played yet that you'd like to?

So I had never done action before, but I got quite a few opportunities in Delhi Crime and Night Manager to do action, which was really fun. Because again, it's something you're socially conditioned to believe you're not the type to do. But I was really glad when that happened, so I would love to do more of that. I think the craft of stage combat and action is a school unto itself and I've just seen the tip of the iceberg.

And in the world that we live in, I'd like to do more comedy. I don't think we can survive if we don't have a lightness of being.

What's your next role or genre looking like?

I am actually in prep for a film in which I have to do a lot of action — I'm quite excited for that.

Ikka releases on Netflix on July 10.