Still Tabu, now aged 50, prefers to stay in what counts in India as self-imposed exile in Hyderabad, far from the glitz of Bollywood in Mumbai.

On Film Companion, she joked that she was “essentially lazy”, but cinephiles and frequent Bollywood observers suggest she’s so reluctant to take on projects because of the paucity of high-octane scripts for an actress of her calibre. As Bette Davis said when she was offered mediocre movies, “It’s like asking Picasso to paint the wall …”

When asked by journalists about working with “the extraordinary” Tabu, soon after the closing night premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, director Mira Nair was complimentary about the actresses aversion to multiple projects, “I love the way she [Tabu] cherishes her art and she doesn’t fritter it away. She doesn’t do every offer given to her, she’s so beautifully careful, and it is to our great enjoyment, to the audience.” Nair would know, having worked with her over the past 15 years.

This most recent project, trying to bring a 1,500-page tome by Vikram Seth to screen, would have been impossible in a film, but suits a multi-episodic television format – “It’s The Crown in brown!” as the stars of the show have said. Nair cast Tabu first – and everything else fell into place after.

“Tabu was the first and only choice for Saeeda Bai,” says Nair. “She’s the only Saeeda. And believe me Saeeda Bai was always for me the cornerstone of A Suitable Boy because of everything she represents, her culture and her love of the poetry and the singing and the ghazals. And the way of course Vikram brings to life [the works of poets] Ghalib and Daag and Mir, so for me it was the cornerstone on why I needed to make A Suitable Boy in many ways and there was only and always Tabu.”

While reviews for the show have been mixed, the actress has been spared the worst of the criticism.

Says Nair, “Of course I love and know her from The Namesake and everything else from before and after – and you know she also has that electrifying mystery about her. And basically, its such fun and such a delight to work together because as I get older too, I don’t want no hassles, baby, I want to work with people I love and enjoy.”

While many actresses of a certain vintage are relegated to secondary roles, lower billing and downsized salaries, Tabu holds out for directors she admires – auteurs like Lee, Nair and Bollywood directors Gulzar and Priyadarshan. Or she says yes to long-time friends in an industry to which she’s dedicated 35 years of her life.

For all the serious movies she’s done, Tabu’s done a handful of comedies and handled them with equal ease and elegance. In the summer of 2019, she was the surprise package in the romcom De De Pyaar De (Give me my Love) and earlier this year in Jawaani Jaaneman (Young Love), where she dropped the gravitas for rib-tickling humour. Bringing wit and comedic flair with aplomb, both movies were surprise blockbusters in Bollywood.

Her co-star Saif Ali Khan says in The Times of India, “Tabu is such a lovely actor and we had no rehearsal … I was very excited because she’s such a good artist, one of my favourite actors, she will just make anything come alive in a very interesting way. So anybody who’s got her on a film has an advantage.”

With three successes in a row, will fans get to see more of Tabu in a post-Covid-19 world? Certainly her director in the US is on the hunt as Nair concludes: “I will always look for things for her to do. because she needs to be seen.”

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