Karishma Tanna on Scoop, rejections and not getting her due: ‘Never knew if directors looked at me as serious actor or glam doll’ (2024)

Inspired by Jigna Vora’s biographical book Behind The Bars In Byculla: My Days in Prison, Scoop is created by Hansal Mehta and Thappad co-writer Mrunmayee Lagoo. The series, which drops on June 2, will see Krishma as Jagruti Pathak, an ambitious crime journalist, who becomes a murder suspect.

Karishma says Scoop is the biggest show of her career, that she got after a series of backbreaking, heart-crushing rejections. “This is the best work I have done in so many years of my career, I can say this proudly.” In an interview with indianexpress.com, Karishma opens up about failed auditions, breaking the TV image, why she doesn’t want to be an actor who only gets papped and how she hopes the show makes people see that she can be a “serious” actor as well.

Edited excerpts:

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This is the biggest show you have ever done; how did it begin?

I just gave the audition without expectations. Of course, deep down you have an expectation but when you face so many rejections… I have given a lot of auditions for Mukesh Chhabra. I used to be shortlisted but for some reason, would be told, ‘She is too tall, she is too model like, too glamourous, or her body of work is not that much’. I would not get the part. When this came my way, I really wanted to work with Hansal and thought this was a perfect opportunity. I was hoping, wishing, praying that some how I just get this part. After a couple of days, I learnt that I bagged the part and could not believe it. I was happy because in my head I had started doubting myself, if I would break the TV personality.

Did the rejections break you?

A lot. I would lock myself in a room… I am an extrovert but when it comes to my work, I am tight-lipped, I don’t even tell my mother that I have faced rejections. She watches something and tells me, ‘Hey this role would have been perfect for you!’ How do I tell her that I did audition but didn’t get the part. A lot of people would ask me, ‘Hey you have not gone to xyz award party?’ and I had no answer. Even if I was invited, I would not go because what would I do there? I want my work to talk. I never did any networking either. The appreciation for your work gets you talking. I never got that feeling, so I stopped going out. You will not see me in any award function or even getting papped. I used to not call anyone at the airport also, because I didn’t want to be an actor who just gets papped everywhere. I wanted my work to talk, I focused there and got Scoop.

You have never done a part like this before, so what was the brief like? Because a lot of your work has been on TV, which is a different space.

Hansal sir had said the ambition and hunger to be at the top has to be there, rest, I would understand from the script itself. He didn’t give me a character brief, he just said whatever comes out while I read the script, I should show that. That was the process like. I had to work hard, because my character is like a hawk in the newsroom, continuously waiting for her bylines, for a scoop to come. Back home, she is someone taking care of her son and her family, but half her mind is on the newsroom. Because the character has so many layers, including going to the jail and getting her confidence shattered, I was initially nervous how will I play it.

Where did you gain the confidence to take it up the role?

I don’t know, because when I had first read the script I wondered what to say because I knew nothing of journalism, the technical words you use, the way journalists talk to cops. I was frightened, how will I remember all these lines, terms! But I prepared. I kept reading the script, did research, Hansal’s assistants took me to a real police station, I was shadowing a journalist also, how she talks to cops. Slowly then I built the confidence.

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Hansal had said he chose you because your hunger and hustle to reach the top resonated with the character. Did you resonate too?

Totally. What he said, the two key words that I am going through– hunger to prove myself as an actor and hustling for it. I will do everything I can… Being in the industry for so long and still being relevant is a big thing. I didn’t realise until Scoop’s writer Mrunmayee Lagoo noted. I continuously hustled my way. There are ups and downs in every actor’s life, but I have tried to be relevant in the industry. That, ‘Hey, I am here! I still have not got what I deserve.’

That looks sounds like a difficult position to be in?

It is very difficult to be in that space. The hunger in me is what Hansal noted. My journey has been overwhelming. In TV, maybe I didn’t work that hard, wasn’t hardworking in a way that I have to do a lead role. I was never chasing that, I was happy doing a cameo, doing reality shows. My focus was not that. In films and web series, I knew what I wanted. I was getting work, fame and money on TV, it has made me who I am, but that satisfaction, that vision was a blur. It happened when OTT platforms came. I thought I finally have platform to show my acting career, it gave me a lot of confidence to re-hustle.

What’s your hope from Scoop?

That people see me, take me seriously as an actor. That I come in the actor bracket. I hope people understand that I can be a serious actor taken in a serious show and at the same time can do that a glamourous part also. I didn’t know whether behind my back directors, producers are taking me seriously as an actor or thinking, ‘She is just a glam doll.’ But now I am expecting after this show that people take me seriously and binge watch the show.