How A Jail In New York Shaped Tillotama Shome's Acting Journey

Tillotama Shome’s path in the world of acting has been full of challenges, courage, and transformation. Born in Kolkata to an Air Force officer, her early years were spent in different parts of India. She studied at Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi and later joined Arvind Gaur's Asmita theatre group, where she began to understand the power of storytelling.

How a jail in New York shaped Tillotama Shome's acting journey

However, after facing repeated rejections and being offered only small roles, Tillotama decided to explore a new path. She moved to New York to study educational theatre at New York University. It was there that her journey took a life-changing turn. For two years, she taught theatre to inmates at Rikers Island Jail, including those convicted of serious crimes. 

This experience, she says, taught her more about acting than any classroom ever could. She saw how many crimes were not born out of evil but out of the lack of basic human needs. It changed the way she saw people, life, and her craft. While in New York, she also saw the harsh realities of racism in the American system. A chance meeting with actor Irrfan Khan during his visit to the city reignited her desire to act in India. 

In 2008, she came back to Mumbai with little more than a few photographs, clicked by a friend who usually shot wildlife, because she had been told, “You need photos if you want to be an actor.” Recalling that time, Tillotama recently shared, “I came with those (photos) to Bombay in 2008. I was told you need photos if you want to be an actor. So a friend who was more comfortable shooting wildlife did me the favour. The photos did not get me any work, but I shared them with directors who agreed to have a meeting. The most memorable being the one with Dev Benegal saheb.”

After her return, she featured in films like Gangor, Turning 30, Shanghai, Tasher Desh, and Aatma. But it was her haunting performance in Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost that truly shot her to critical fame.

However, steady work was hard to come by. Things finally shifted with the rise of OTT platforms. Series like Delhi Crime 2, The Night Manager, Tooth Pari, Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper, and Paatal Lok gave her the space to play strong, layered female characters. She believes OTT opened doors for diverse stories and actors like herself.

Tillotama fondly remembered her struggle in those early days and thanked SheThePeople, “Thank you @shethepeopletv for digging out my formative years and those old photos. They make me smile. I came to Bombay with them in 2008, hopeful and unsure. I promise to keep working hard in the next two decades :-)”

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