Thin Line Between Being An Innocent & Criminal: Tillotama Shome On Karishma

With a huge wave of crime-thriller series streaming across OTT platforms, Delhi Crime makes a solid return to Netflix with season 2 and its unique style of bringing a crime story on screen without complicating it. The series brings a new character on board this time with actor Tillotama Shome, who explores the greyness between right and wrong by playing the antagonist in the much-talked-about show.

Tillotama Shome has been making waves with her stellar performance in Delhi Crime season 2, as she plays the antagonist with sheer honesty. Shome, who joined the series in season 2, is winning the hearts of the audience with her role, in which she plays a multi-layered criminal.

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Praise-worthy performance: Tillotama Shome On Delhi Crime

While her character is praiseworthy, her versatile performance is not surprising. Shome, who made her debut in Monsoon Wedding in 2001, has played some great roles in the past as well with performances across several films and shows on OTT. Now with this trailblazing performance in Delhi Crime season 2, she talks about her character, why the role was a tightrope to walk on, and how the greyness of right and wrong alters the thin line between crime and innocence.

Her character takes the alias Karishma as she decides to move on from her past where she was referred to as Lata, a simple wife and mother living in Ghaziabad. As a woman who had high ambitions and wanted to break the cycle of mundane and poverty around her, she decides to change her life altogether. For a character who undertakes some gory murders, Shome's decision to play the specific part proves how she experiments with well-written characters and versatility.

Shome, who got into the skin of the character brilliantly, recalls how she decided to play the part. “The place where my character comes from, it's from the ‘have-not’ section. She is a dreamer and she will do whatever needs to be done for her dreams to come true. You and I can judge her for it but she doesn’t care for your approval. She is very intelligent and smart but is also a very sensitive girl. She is mostly cut down because she is poor. To understand her and find the reason as to why she does what she does, I only had to find one that one thing to connect with Lata - it was the dreams that she envisioned with so much innocence,” she shares.

It's a thing line between innocence and becoming a criminal

The actor's approach to selecting scripts has made her part of several unconventional, layered and ambitious films, all of which have earned praise over the years. This time around, her role represents prejudice and brings up the fact that how no one is born a criminal. It's through her role too that we see the realities of the socioeconomic difference and class divide in society. Shome's interest lay more not just in the character itself but in the backstory that answered uncomfortable questions of why her character chose to do what she did.

“It's actually a very thin line between being a criminal and being innocent. For Lata, because her identity was not accepted, it was given that there would be friction. It's a peek into the mind of a criminal and what you see there when the gap between the haves and have-nots just keeps exceeding,” she further added.

Delhi Crime season 2 surfaces hard-based facts of the present world showcasing disparities, prejudice, the state of the Indian police force, and so much more through its storyline. The show is produced by SK Global Entertainment, Golden Karavan and Film Karavan. The series, directed by Tanuj Chopra, stars Shefali Shah, Rasika Dugal, Adil Hussain, Rajesh Tailang, Anurag Arora, Sidharth Bhardwaj and Gopal Dutt in influential roles. The series is based on a chapter Moon Gazer from the book ‘Khaki Files’ written by Neeraj Kumar.

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