Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo’s Dimple Kapadia: ‘You can’t do a decent performance if the character is not good enough’

Dimple Kapadia’s powerhouse performance in Homi Adajania’s recently released crime drama series on Disney+ Hotstar - Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo - in which the acclaimed actress plays a tough-minded matriarch and a drug lord has been widely appreciated. Known to have essayed meaty characters on screen throughout her career, the actress recently said that “it’s an effort by the entire team” to bring such roles. 

Also starring Radhika Madan, Isha Talwar, Angira Dhar, Deepak Dobriyal, Monica Dogra and Naseeruddin Shah, Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo features Dimple as an unapologetically hardcore mother-in-law - named Rani Baa - who is leading a family of tenacious younger women to run a drug cartel in a remote village in Rajasthan. 

It’s often been said that ‘aurat hi aurat ki dushman hoti hai’. When asked if she thinks Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo has changed that perspective, Dimple told IANS, “I haven’t broken the barrier. It was the character that broke the barrier. And that’s important. At the end of the day, it’s the written material, the role and the character that really work, and people often mistake it by saying, ‘Oh, what a great performance’. You can’t do a decent performance if you’re not given the meat, if the character is not good enough and if the lines are not good enough. It’s an effort by the entire team. Each one plays such an important part.”

Also read: Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo’s Dimple Kapadia: ‘It’s high time we stop calling films and series female-centric; these are stories’

Adding to that, the 65-year-old actress said, “It’s unbelievable where it can get you. In the sense that even a hug or a dress or your makeup artist, even that matters and it translates. So, it’s a complete team effort. You can’t stand there alone and do anything.”

So, how much of herself did she see in the character of Rani Baa? The actress said, “It would be a lie to say that in every character that you do, there has to be 30% of yourself. Otherwise, where do you dig from? Where do you get your experiences from? Where do you get your emotions from? So yes, 30% of it is you.”

Also read: Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo review: Dimple Kapadia starrer has its flaws, but it's never less than compelling

Dimple further said, “The other thing is that I’m silly, but I don’t think I have done any work - I have this thing where some part of my jewellery has to be on me, I don’t know why, it’s been like that always from the beginning, so that there is always some part of me and I take it from there.”