'I can't fear the society I live in'

Acclaimed for performing unconventional characters in the movies, Kalki Koechlin, in her real life, has always come up as a bold and confident woman. She doesn't fear to opine on any subject even if it influences her social image. Kalki, who was in the town to promote her upcoming movie Ribbon, says, "It might have bad effects on my image but I can't fear the society I live in. If I am hiding myself just to get accepted, then I am not really a part of it. If I want to be a part of this society, I need to be who I really am. And that's really important for me."

The actor, who is found active on social media every now and then, finds the platform to be an extremely disturbing 'noise'. Commenting on the cliché, she says that social media is like an office to her and she uses it as a mere platform to put out her work. "I literally consider it as my office. You go to the office, do your work and come back. You don't just sit there and chit-chat. I personally love it as it's extremely useful. It cuts out the middleman and makes the ordinary person empowered. But with all freedom comes responsibility. It will have the side effects and you need to learn to deal with it. People are allowed to insult you and speak against your opinion (and make 'Noise') as it's their freedom of speech. But if I will spend time looking at that, it will drain my energy and confidence. So, I would rather use that time to work as I believe that my work speaks for me. Even when I do post on social media, I make sure that it's either related to my work or who I am. I refrain from commenting on other's opinions.

Kalki believes that social media is an extremely strong medium to bring a change, though gradually. Supporting it with the example of #MeToo campaign, she says that the campaign may not bring a revolution or a change instantly but for sure it's the beginning. It gave people the confidence to talk about the issues they would never have. The more people talk about it, the better it would be as the perpetrators would think twice before committing any such crime."

While adding further she says, "As for the Harvey Weinstein issue, we are obsessing about it in India. If you pick a copy of Elle, you will find stories about all the other interesting subjects and not just this. They are hardly paying any heed to the issue. Hence, it would be better to take the responsibility of bringing up our own stories and not just get stuck to one of it."

Kalki wants to break her own stereotypes and work in the big budget commercial movies. "As an actor, I want to do all kinds of movies and not just stick to performing specific kind of roles. I wish to work in commercial movies but don't get offers to do so," said Kalki, who will be sharing the screen with Sumeet Vyaas in Ribbon.