HT Brunch Cover Story: The invisible lives of India’s domestic help

ByKarishma Kuenzang

Feb 27, 2021 08:57 PM IST

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Two actors, acclaimed for their recent portrayals of “household help”, hold up the mirror to society and show us class distinctions even the educated tend to ignore

He’s become the icon of talent, thanks to his role as Balram in Netflix’s The White Tiger (2021). And she’s made everyone rewatch her debut, Monsoon Wedding (2001) after her stellar performance as Ratna in Is Love Enough? Sir (2018). Adarsh Gourav and Tillotama Shome have arrived, even though they don’t seem to agree when we chat.

Even a decade ago no one could have imagined that the roles Tillotama Shome and Adarsh Gourav played could possibly catapult anyone to the limelight; Styling by Who Wore What When; On Tillotama: Pantsuit, Aroka; jewellery, Foundree; shoes, Christian Louboutin; Make-up: Deepti Jitani; Hair: Mona Marak; On Adarsh: Jacket: Line Tribe; Pants: Line outline; Shoes: Zara; hair and make-up: Aamir Shaikh (Prabhat Shetty)

To prepare for his role in The White Tiger, Adarsh worked at a food thela in Delhi for two weeks, washing plates and keeping the place clean (Prabhat Shetty)

While Tillotama admits that we as a society are so class biased that we can’t imagine intimacy between ourselves and the people who are such an intimate part of our lives, Adarsh says he is horrified by how institutionalised class biases are; On Tillotama: Outfit, Rahul Mishra; jewellery, Abhilasha Jewellery Collection; shoes, House of Prisca; On Adarsh: Jacket and pants, Line Outline; turtle neck, Kunal Anil Tanna; shoes, Christian Louboutin

Tillotama muses that most of us learned the true ‘value’ of domestic help during the lockdown last year

Adarsh on fame, being an actor and playing the role of Balram, years after reading the book the film is based on

Tillotama on acting as a career, living in the margins of the industry and censorship in cinema

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HT Brunch Cover Story: The invisible lives of India’s domestic help

Two actors, acclaimed for their recent portrayals of “household help”, hold up the mirror to society and show us class distinctions even the educated tend to ignore

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