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Indian Express

The Royals, Call Me Bae actor Lisa Mishra wants to get rid of her ‘Tareefan Reprise girl' tag: ‘It's been 7 years, I've done so much'

'Is that the Tareefan Reprise girl?' asked my cousin while we watched The Royals on Netflix India. Lisa Mishra, who plays Nikki in the show, and who also played news producer Harleen in Call Me Bae last year, first broke into the scene as a singer back in 2018. Sonam Kapoor spotted an Instagram mashup, Tareefan x Let Me Love You, by her, only to fly her down from the US to record the promotional track, Tareefan Reprise, for her film Veere Di Wedding. In an exclusive interview with SCREEN, Mishra looks back at that moment, her foray into acting, and why she would like to go past her 'Tareefan Reprise girl' identity. Now that you've done two shows, are you still recognized as the Tareefan Reprise girl? Oh my god, thank you for asking this question! Because I can ask you to officially inform everybody to stop referring to me as that (laughs)! Yeah, I think I'd like to retire that title. It's been seven years, I've done so much since then! Maybe the reason I'm trying to make sure I'm visible on such platforms is to be rid of that title one day. Do you remember that moment though? When Sonam Kapoor spotted you on Instagram and reached out to you? Of course, the event is written about everywhere. But the feeling doesn't leave me! The sort of wonder and awe, that I could be so far away from home doing something I never thought was possible. It'll always feel surreal to be around this close community of Bollywood film families. Because I didn't come from any of this. My background is very simple. Everybody leaves a normal life, and went to a normal school. My dad is a banker, mom is a professor. The feeling of awe and gratitude will always stay with me, irrespective of how many years away from that I am. Speaking of Sonam, she's one of the female actors who are juggling between two countries and doing work in both actively. Do you also see yourself doing that for a long time? Yes, of course. For me, it's even more important because my family is in the US. I want to be closer home. Of course, I've made Mumbai my new home, and there's a close community of people around me. But ideally, I could be working in both continents, and that would be my dream life. At what point did you decide to have a home in Mumbai? Why was that important? See, it's very different from someone moving from Nagpur or Kolkata. They can make a temporary move. When you're giving up your job in another side of the world, everything is permanent. I moved here with the intention of giving it all of my attention and making a life here. It's not a vacation, right? There's no option B, this is it. Now I've made the decision to move here, now I have to make sure it works out. You said the audition process for The Royals was very long and arduous. Can you walk us through that? Ya, the process of audition was long because of the scale of the show. You're looking at a show that had 600 people on set on some days. So they had to make sure people in the lead cast were exactly who they wanted. They were very careful and diligent about who got which role. I remember I auditioned at least six times for this character because they wanted to make sure this person was the only choice for them at the end. And I'm happy it worked out. I'd do it all over again, 10 times, 15 times, if that's what the role demands. I have no issues with auditioning. I take a lot of pride that of the hundreds of people who tried their hands, the ultimate decision was to go with me. It's because they saw something and I could pull off the material. Your character Nikki is a hustler — at work, in love, and in friendship. Is that something you relate with? She and I are similar because we both are self-made. She's also something who's not willing to give up whatever she's worked for. As you see later in the series, she points that out to Ginny that I can't leave this life and come and live with you in Morpur because what would that mean? Why would I work hard for all that I have if I just give it up? I also have a vision for my life. I'm very clear about my future looks like and how I want it to grow. Nikki also has the same idea about life: you have to be decisive shrewd, and hard-working, and you have to hustle. Kavya Trehan's character Ginny lives in a palace, yet has her own challenges of identity around her gender and sexuality in a patriarchal setup. Have you also been bogged down by any social stigma? Yeah, I'm living that right now. Obviously, I won't compare it to somebody else's journey of coming out. That's so much more difficult. But it's always been assumed I won't be able to work like this because when you speak to me, I have an American accent. There's always a bias when I go into dubbing rooms where they don't expect me to change how I sound. But every time I surprise everybody, who says I sound like I've lived my whole life in Mumbai, it's because this is my job. Even as a musician, there was always doubt whether I can do it because I'm self-taught. I'm not classically trained. But like I said earlier, I'm a hustler. I'm here to prove myself. The objective of my life is to work hard at something so much that it feels I've done this my whole life! You've lent your voice to the songs of so many international artists, including Chance The Rapper. Does that part of your career help you with acting today? Yes, it gave me the confidence that any room that I thought was closed to me, any door I couldn't access, it's just a matter of working hard and proving myself. It's incredible to look back at my career and see these big moments. Also Read: Ishaan Khatter and Bhumi Pednekar's The Royals delivers massive viewership numbers on Netflix despite terrible reviews, beats Weak Hero, Black Warrant Finally, on a lighter note, you said your dad is a huge fan of your Royals co-star, Zeenat Aman. That's interesting because watching you hold that guitar and sing Tareefan Reprise takes me back to Aman lip-synching to Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko in Yaadon Ki Baraat (1973). Since you've been watching her since childhood, how much of an influence was she on you personally? My dad's favourite yesteryear actor is Zeenat Aman. And his current favourite, for many, many years, has actually been Bhumi Pednekar! He's very happy to say that. It's great to have the opportunity to work with the two people even my parents admire. It gives a lot of credibility to the kind of work I'm doing right now. If have my parents' sign off, then everything is good. What's common between Zeenat ji and Bhumi is both are fierce advocates of empowering women, and they've always been! Bhumi has always taken up really tough roles that are very empowered. Zeenat Aman was a force in her era of modernizing India and the Indian woman. What I already am, and have learnt even more by being around them, is to be unignorable and an example for women to scale up their lives and achieve whatever they want.