Have you ever observed that the organizations that produce Hindi films and web series, regardless of their size, have the same mindset regarding the maids who work in the homes? They are typically so small that they perceive all “maids” as being dark-skinned and size zero. Additionally, casting directors have a criteria for playing these characters; only ten to twelve dark actresses are chosen, and they receive the first call for such roles after going around. The cherry on top is that after portraying a character like that, an actress has work extremely hard to land another role in a movie or television show.
The movie ‘Monsoon Wedding’ marked the beginning of Tillotama Shome’s career. Mira Nair is the film’s director. In this movie, she portrays Alisa, a maid who, while looking for her life and dreams in the glamour of a Punjabi wedding, falls in love with Dubey, a wedding planner played by Vijay Raj. This movie tells her character’s narrative in a different way. Mira Nair’s film effectively captures the range of human emotions in society. Alisa’s role as this maid was highly appreciated.
The maid who is a part of this dabba gang is the only character whose description the casting directors have maintained since Shonali Bose directed Excel Entertainment’s “Dabba Cartel” series till it was released under Hitesh Mehta’s supervision. Nimisha Sajayan has been assigned to this position. She’s pretending to be a maid. Although she could have received accolades for her serious portrayal of the role, the series and her character were undermined by the typed character’s color, appearance, and speech.
“The Mirror” is one of four stories in the “Lust Stories” series, which was created by Karan Johar’s firm Dharma Entertainment for Netflix. In this Konkona Sen Sharma-directed tale, Amrita Subhash portrays a domestic worker who, in addition to working, has sex with her husband in her mistress’s (Ishita) bed when she is not home. Seema finds it challenging to manage everything in her tiny home, especially when there are kids living there. The mistress uses it to satiate her sexual cravings after learning about it. Although Amrita Subhash’s performance isn’t as strong as it normally is, the same reasoning that assigns these roles to actresses of a specific color, appearance, height, and figure also appears to have led to her casting as a domestic help.
Sir is a singular tale that examines interpersonal connections and inequality in society. Vivek Gomber and Tillotama Shome appear in the movie. Tillotama portrays Ratna, a domestic worker who want to pursue her life but is constrained by social norms. After returning from America, architect Ashwin falls in love with his widowed maid Ratna, who aspires to be a fashion designer, in this movie. In this film, the emotional bond between the master and servant is masterfully depicted by director Rohen Gera. Although she had a string of domestic maid parts following this, Tillotama also won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for her performance in this movie. And, this film also came to Tillotama probably because of her film ‘Monsoon Wedding’.
This one film definitely tried to break the cliche of domestic help because here this role was given to the powerful actress Nushrratt Bharuccha. Minal is shown here as a street-smart domestic maid who lives in the slums with her younger sister Binni. She poured her heart and her into the job, and her character, who attempts to bridge the gap between the mindset of tiny towns and that of wealthy families, was a great success in the movie.
