Dressed in a robe and getting her make-up done, Kalki Koechlin chatted with t2 backstage while getting ready for the glamourous evening that marked the launch of blended whisky Cutty Sark at Aqua on Friday.

Welcome to Calcutta… what’s the first thing you do when you come here?
I order Bong food, like today I ordered aloo posto, luchi, maachher jhol... Bengali food that I love. Thank God I do not live here else I would have only eaten so much (laughs). 

Anything that you carry back from Calcutta to Mumbai?
Yes, mostly sweets, the dry little brown sweet... not chomchom... shit! How can I not remember the name!

Margarita With A Straw (the only Indian film to win an award at the Toronto International Festival 2014) has been appreciated abroad. What did you have to learn and unlearn as an actor to play that role?
Yeah, it was a lot of prep and work, I was very scared about getting it right. In fact, I trained about six months to get it right and we shot it for two months.

Well, many things in terms of speech. For my role, I had to work with speech and physiotherapists, people who had cerebral palsy and with a friend who had cerebral palsy. We sat together and tried to understand how things worked in their body. Example: They have very weak muscles so the breathing cannot be deep, it becomes shallow. Hence the speech pattern is different; you will run out of breath halfway and start again (enacts how). Also, people suffering from cerebral palsy have a lazy tongue so you have to hold your tongue and talk. We tried like putting marbles in my mouth. Ultimately it was just doing it everyday like riyaaz and then you get used to it. After we were done shooting one day, when I went out for a drink, I realised I was still talking in that dialect!

Which character played by you is closest to what Kalki is like?
Umm, a lot of my characters are super depressing so I do not relate to any of them personally but I do relate to Aditi in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. I was a tomboy in school with short hair and braces but I am trying to be a lady now (smiles). A total geek! I still go for trekking, surfing... I am quite an adventurer. I would rather go for a watersport holiday than sit in a resort and read a book.

Your favourite adventure sport? 
I really enjoy surfing the most and my hometown Pondicherry is my favourite where I go surfing with the boys I have grown up with. I also ski in Gulmarg with my family during this time of the year but unfortunately this year I couldn’t because of shooting. Adventure sports are a complete stress-buster! Abroad, I like to take a cycle and explore the place on my own.

How have the film offers to women actors in Bollywood changed from say, five years ago, to now?
I guess it is changing slowly and characters are coming out. Like Queen stood out last year and then Vidya Balan tends to have quite powerful roles. The fact that we have comebacks from Sridevi and Madhuri is a sign that there is a growing space for women. Right now in cinema there is Qissa that is powerful in terms of roles that women play like Tillotama Shome, Tisca Chopra…

Any recent role you would have liked to do?
I would have liked to do Lisa Haydon’s role in Queen because I am French, so for me it would have been natural. I think she did a great job but I would have loved to do that role.

Who are your friends in the industry? Can two actresses ever be genuine friends? 
Umm, I am very close to my Yeh Jawaani team just because we spent so much time while shooting so me, Aditya (Roy Kapur), Ranbir (Kapoor) and Deepika (Padukone) and Ayan (Mukerji) tend to meet every few months. We usually go for a drink or for dinner. Zoya Akhtar is the other person whom I am quite close to. 

Yeah, of course two actresses can be genuine friends... in fact most actresses are! It’s just that it doesn’t sell good news that two people are friends and happy. Personally, I have really got on well with Katrina (Kaif), Deepika and with all the actresses I have worked with. In fact, I find they support each other a lot and give each other advice like what hair product to use (laughs) and engage in girlie talk. 

People have always admired you for your carefree and independent mind...
The pressure! Now every time I do something, it’s under scrutiny. That is a good and bad thing, like I am really flattered that people find me an influence on them. Like the other day I went to JNU in Delhi and there were like 200 students and we chatted about moral policing and it was a great chat. But at the same time, I feel people forget that you are human, we also make mistakes and we also learn as we go along. Nobody should be made an idol, put on a pedestal and made into ‘God’.

Who is your inspiration?
Many! There is Maya Rao, Karuna Nundy, Tabu, Meryl  Streep, still in her 60s and getting mainstream roles…. Among those gone... Sister Nivedita and Audrey Hepburn because she always stayed very natural and stood by causes.

You have always stood by women on issues like rape or harassment. What is the best and worst part about being a woman in India?
The worst thing is you are being constantly reminded about your sexuality the moment you step out of your house. You have to be a woman first and then a human being. The best thing about being a woman would be (thinks hard) getting a lot of attention, like a lot of people are fighting for causes and for us.

You mentioned Meryl Streep. This year at the Oscars, Patricia Arquette mentioned how women are not paid on a par with men in the industry and Meryl Streep cheered for her. Does that happen in Bollywood too?
Absolutely. This happens in Bollywood to a larger degree. Women get paid very less and it doesn’t make sense because you are doing the same job. I feel in every walk of life, women get paid less and are discriminated on the basis of their looks for employment. These are the things we need to fight against. So yes, I absolutely support Patricia’s speech…

You are super active on Twitter, how much time do you devote to it?
Ha ha! I am on Twitter whenever I am stuck in traffic or at the airport or in a really boring setting. 

You keep posting a lot of pictures with your cat, and not selfies…
(Smiles) Yes, I love my cat (Dosa)... what to do. I had two cats called Masala and Dosa but Masala ran away some years ago so I am very sad and Dosa became sada Dosa (laughs). Twitter is my personal space where I can be myself. Twitter is an easy way to be myself and express myself. But I feel there is a lot more to life than talking about what you are eating for breakfast.

Coming to Cutty Sark, what is common between you two?
Macallan is the common thing! Cutty Sark is from there and Macallan is my favourite type of whisky. I like Highland Park whisky too. I also like the concept of the show tonight based on this mythic story where this witch seduced a sailor and she is a witch in a short night gown and runs faster than the wind. 

Coming to fashion, what is Kalki’s signature style? 
I am very mercurial as I keep on changing my style and experimenting with it. Sometimes you will see me in really classic Chanel with shoes and bag matching but other times you might find me in chilled-out Goa fashion with a jhola. So it depends on the day and how fat I am feeling, whether I am PMSing or not.

Fave place to chill?
Bar Stock Exchange (Mumbai) that is fun, then live music places.

What’s on your playlist?
Wait, let me see my playlist (surfs phone). Yeah, a lot of ‘muse’, I like this guy called Rufus Wainwright... Cigarette and Chocolate Milk. I am into books but it’s hard to finish a book because of my lifestyle. If I’m on a holiday I finish it in two days. 

You’ve read Fifty Shades of Grey?
Oh yes, I have read all the books but I think the movie will not match up to the book. Imagination is so much wilder…

Who’d be your Christian Grey?
I want him to be more rugged but Jamie Dornan is too sober type. My Mr Grey would be Jared Leto, he is such a good actor.

Do you see yourself playing Anastasia Steele? Is there an Ana in you?
If it’s a character then yes, I see myself having no reason not to play it but in real life umm… I do not think I am the submissive type… (laughs) I can say that from experience.

Finally, since we began with food, if you are eating ____  you have to have ____. Fill in the blanks. 
If I am eating Vada Pav, I have to be having Cutting Chai! Okay, where is my misthi doi? (Digs into a bowl of mishti doi)

 

Pramita Ghosh
Pictures: Anindya Shankar Ray

“The reference point of the collection was the ship in Cutty Sark’s logo for which we needed a lot of architectural references. I mixed punk and old-world charm by using components like a sailor’s watch, net etc.  I wanted some Indian influences in punk so the headgear has stuff like the knobs of a gas cylinder and then parts of a bike, helmet and car. The bird format was one of the quirkiest looks of the night — it had wings. Other outfits had caps of Cutty Sark bottles used in multiple ways. The colour palette was consciously black, and we kept the lips of the models in the shade of Cutty colours. For Kalki, my reference point was the Robert Burns poem Tam o’Shanter”
— Nitin Bal Chauhan, designer 

THE CUTTY EDGE

 

Whoopi Goldberg might have named her character Robert S. Cutty after a bottle of Cutty Sark in The Associate. That tidbit was enough to hook us as we chatted with Kristeen Campbell, master blender of Cutty Sark, before the launch at The Park. 

What sets Cutty Sark apart?
It has been quite revolutionary right from the 1920s when it was created in the USA. It’s a versatile whisky and it’s great had neat. 

What exactly is your role as master blender?
To ensure that the blend of the whisky is fantastic and that it blends well with classic and contemporary cocktails.

You have been bearing the mantle of one of the world’s five women master blenders...
Yeah, it’s unusual but I personally have never faced any problem or difficulty. For me, it’s not about being male or female but about being good at the job. Being ambitious is vital and the brand philosophy should raise your bar. Other than that, the person wanting to take up the profession should have a natural ability to taste and smell the flavours and know which flavours would work with one another.

What took Cutty Sark so long to launch in Calcutta?
In India, we have seen a general growth, in particular in the Scotch whisky segment. So we thought of entering the market.

It is said that whisky is a man’s drink… would you agree?
Yeah, I hear a lot of this but perception is definitely changing now. We are seeing more women enjoying it. Cutty Sark is a whisky that can be enjoyed by all, so I believe whisky being just a man’s drink is a myth.

Neat or on the rocks — is there a perfect way of drinking whisky?
I think a traditionalist would say, ‘Do not add anything to it’ or ‘Just one cube of ice’ but for me it’s all about enjoying it whichever way it suits you — neat, served with soda or tonic. Personally, how I like it depends on the occasion. After a meal I like it neat or add a little bit of water because I feel that opens up the flavour better. But mostly I drink it with either soda or tonic or carbonated apple juice which works really well with the flavours of the whisky.

Where does the blended whisky age come from?
For Scotch, the age on the label means the minimum age of the whisky. For example, a 12-year-old whisky must have matured in an old cask for a minimum of 12 years, it could be a little longer but not any less. Any Scotch whisky has to mature in an old cask in Scotland for a minimum of three years.

A Cutty Sark drinking man and woman is…
A man drinking Cutty Sark is looking for something luxurious while a woman is definitely adventurous and not afraid to be different!

PG