After scorching the ramp for more than a decade, model Tinu Verghis will now be seen on the big screen. However, it’s not going to be a Bollywood film. Tinu will be a part of Bengali filmmaker Q’s ambitious project Tasher Desh.
Instead of taking the route to tinseltown, she chose to debut with a film by Q, who is known for his provocative films and fixation with extreme cinema. But she wasn’t apprehensive at all, swears Tinu.
She says, “I would have to play a zombie if it’s a Bollywood movie. I like to push my limits. I had a great meeting with Q and his dream of this movie is far bigger than my little fears.”
Tinu plays the Oracle, Patralekha, in the movie and says her first movie is priceless to her. Tinu doesn’t have any prior acting experience. Still she was called for an audition in June last year, while she was in Goa, for The Land of Cards (Tasher Desh), which is a film adaptation of a very popular play by Rabindranath Tagore.
She almost refused to do the film when her casting director advised her to reconsider.
“I have seen Love in India and Gandu. So I met Q in Mumbai out of sheer curiosity to know this person. He came across as a very funny storyteller. I didn’t want to doubt the man who is tripping out on Tagore, I wanted to be a part of his trip,” she explains.
While many like to believe that models end up taking the Bollywood route, it was not the case with Tinu.
“Ninjas like me have no place in Bollywood. That role was meant for me. It would have been stupid if I had said no to it. The experience of doing that movie with Q was a learning path. I enjoy new experiences that life offers me. I have always said no to movies because I didn’t think I could act. When it’s a Bollywood movie, all I see is over-acting and slapstick routines. Working on this film was mind-blowing,” she sums up.