Tillotama Shome is an Indian actress who is best remembered for her portrayal of Alice in Mira Nair’s critically acclaimed feature film Monsoon Wedding in 2001, which received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.Early LifeBorn in Kolkata, India, Tillotama was born to an Air Force Officer and his wife because of which she lived and studied in most parts of the country. However, she graduated from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi where she became a part of Arvind Gaur's Asmita theater group. She moved to New York after completing her bachelor’s and master’s degree in English literature, where she pursued a master’s degree from NYU in Educational Theatre. While she was in the USA, she was an active part of theater and drama, and upon her return to India she has been involved in innovative pedagogy, which a form of teaching or learning that focuses on the development of innovation competencies.
Personal LifeTillotama met Kunal Ross, who runs an online portal that deals with selling of coffee beans across the country, and is yesteryear’s actress Jaya Bachchan’s sister’s son, in 2008 after she permanently moved in Mumbai. The two soon started dating and tied the knot in 2015.
Acting CareerThe theater artist was first seen in Mira Nair’s 2001 feature film Monsoon Wedding co-starring Naseeruddin Shah, Lillete Dubey, and Vasundhara Das. She then appeared in Florian Gallenberger’s romantic movie Shadows of Time, which was dubbed as Schatten der Zeit, where she played the role of Deepa, and the movie went on to win the Best European Film at the Mons International Festival of Love Films. Meanwhile, she appeared in a number of short films such as Long After in 2006, Zamir and Preeti: A Love Story, Clap Clap, and Boond in 2009.
She was then seen in Italo Spinelli’s Gangor, which is based on Mahashweta Devi’s novel, in 2009. Tillotama played the role of a social worker in the movie adaptation. She then worked in Qaushiq Mukherjee’s Tasher Desh, which is loosely based on Rabindranath Tagore’s play, however, it is said to be a rather ‘trippy’ one. She garnered critical acclaim with her performance in Dibakar Banerjee’s political thriller Shanghai co-starring Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Deol, and Kalki Koechlin in 2012, where she played the role of Mrs. Ahmadi.
She won the Best Actress Award in the New Horizons Competition at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in 2013 for her stellar performance in Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost. She was then cast in Children of War, which is based on the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. The 2014 drama depicts the struggles of the Bangladeshis during their freedom struggle, and co-stars Raima Sen, Indraneil Sengupta and Farooq Shaikh. In 2016, she was seen in debutant director Soumendra Padhi’s biopic Budhia Singh - Born To Run, which co-stars Manoj Bajpayee and Mayur Patole. Her other projects for 2016 is Konkona Sen Sharma’s directorial debut A Death in the Gunj. The ensemble cast of the movie includes Kalki Koechlin, Vikrant Massey, Om Puri, Tanuja, Gulshan Devaiah, and Ranvir Shorey.