Nimrat Kaur interview on starring in Apple TV’s Foundation Season 2: I owe my international journey to The Lunchbox

Ten years ago, when Nimrat Kaur first appeared on our screens as a homemaker Ila in Ritesh Batra’s critically acclaimed romance The Lunchbox, one didn’t know the extent of her versatility. Nimrat went on to display her range both in India and even overseas, especially with a recurring role in the spy series Homeland.

(Also Read: Nimrat Kaur says she hasn’t been bullied in Bollywood)

In an exclusive interview, Nimrat talks about 10 years of The Lunchbox, her international journey as an actor, and working with Jared Harris in Apple TV’s Foundation Season 2, a BAFTA-winning actor who’s excelled in shows like Mad Men and Chernobyl. Excerpts:

When I interviewed Jared Harris for Foundation Season 1, he said, “If you don’t feel terrified, if you don’t feel those serpents of fear coiling in your stomach, then you’re not doing your job right.” When you shared screen space with him in Season 2, how terrified were you?

(Laughs) I was really excited and looking forward to sharing screen space with Jared. Just to be in the presence of a mind like that and to know that at the very least, you’re going to come out better than what you’ve been at what you do. Because very rarely you come across opportunities where you learn from people you work with. And he’s really a school and an institution on his own, such a fine mind, and such an excellent hotbed of talent. He’s really, really extraordinary. Of course, I was nervous. I wasn’t terrified. He went beyond all of that for me. I learnt so much by reading scenes with him, by studying what we were going to do, just by watching him purely sometimes.

Kubra Sait was part of Season 1. Stars like Priyanka Chopra and Alia Bhatt have a lot of global appeal already. But do you think it’s a great time for people like you and Kubra who are actors first, stars later to secure global footprint through shows like these?

I’ll only speak for myself. My career graph is very different from any other actor’s. What happened with The Lunchbox led to a Homeland for me, which led to Wayward Pines. Why I’m in a guest appearance in Foundation is because of my association with people I’d worked in Homeland, and because they’d seen The Lunchbox. So I can comment only on that, leaving everything and everyone else out.

It’s very lovely to know that canvases of projects like these are seen with all kinds of faces and people want to include more and more actors from all kinds of nationalities and countries. Also because of the sheer number of shows being made, everyone needs variety, everyone needs viewership from different countries. Whatever gets them to pull in and draw the audience in, I think people are doing that.

You’ve previously worked with director Alexander Gravis on Homeland, where your character arc slowly and surely came into its own. How different was it collaborating with him again on Foundation?

Oh, I love Alex! He’s truly one of the most gifted and astute directors I’ve worked with. He’s always brought the best out in me. All the love I’ve received for Homeland, and how that character was loved to be hated (laughs), if I may so, I owe that to Alex. When he came to me with this part and he said, “I hope you’ll take this up. It’s a guest appearance but we need someone to justify what we need to for Jared Harris’ part. We’re treating it like a film within the show.” He said just the right things for me to leap at this part. He really left me with no choice. The way his mind works, how sophisticated and lovely he is, and just how much he loves his actors. Because for any actor to be on set, you are in such a vulnerable position. You throw yourself into the deep end emotionally, physically and in every other way. You just want to feel safe and loved. He’s one of the few wonderful minds who knows how to gently, but very surely, steer you in the right direction. So it’s always a pleasure and I can’t wait to be back on his set.

When you lead a show like School of Lies on Disney+ Hotstar back in India, do you feel more pressured as opposed to a Foundation, where you’re a crucial but minor cog in the wheel?

Absolutely not. Look, for me, no artiste who loves their job like I do, I always look at the impact of a role. For instance, The Lunchbox wasn’t a film I saw for the number of scenes I had in it. I shot for all of nine days for the movie. But the point is: what kind of impact your story arc and your character make in the larger picture? That’s always the point. You remember Irrfan in a Life of Pi or you remember him in a Namesake, you realise that screentime-vise, how many scenes he has has nothing to do with what you remember or what your takeaway is.

School of Lies, for instance. Yes, I lent my name to it because a story like that is very important to be told. Even though it’s a story about kids and largely about what happens in a boarding school, it’s about what is my contribution to that and how I’m adding value to something. It’s not about how long you’re there for. It’s about the level and quality of work you’re able to achieve. This entire thing of being a star before an actor and an actor before a star, for me, the shine is really in how you do your job and not in what your Instagram following is. The metrics of these seem to be in the world as we know it. At the end of one’s career, you’re known for the parts that moved people. Any career that you picked up, in that sense. In Dasvi also, I tried to do the best with what I was offered. I try to make a meal of everything that comes my way.

It’s 10 years of The Lunchbox this year. Do you think that was the start of your international career?

It started my life and my journey as I know it. I have no other film or no other project to credit for becoming a name, rather than just being known as the Cadbury girl or the Tera Mera Pyar girl. I owe absolutely everything that happened thereafter to The Lunchbox, and it’s a gift that will always keep giving. So I’m very grateful to it.