I am happy and content with my work: Tabu

Actress Tabu, whose roles in in films like Maachis, Chandni Bar, Maqbool, Cheeni Kum have been widely appreciated, feels proud of charting her course in Bollywood on her own.

"I am proud that we (my sister Farah also an actress and me) had no support system here. We were in new industry, had no guidance but we made it all on our own. I am happy and content with my work and career," the actress said in an interview here.

"We came from different background...It is a big achievement for me," she said. Tabu, who is anxiously awaiting November 21 release of Oscar-winning director Ang Lee's film Life of Pi, says she chose to be fastidious now as "acting experience" matters most for her.

"There is hunger to have good experiences with people. There will be roles and all of that. But the package of experience has today become important for me. People should be good, established; the filmmaking and acting experience should become heartening," the 40-year-old said, adding she consciously chose her films in a way that she gets good experience and not just great roles.

On Life of Pi Tabu said she always wanted to be part of the Ang Lee crew. "I had attraction to work with Ang Lee. I wanted to work with him. It was a great chance. He has done great entertaining, relevant films. He has made beautiful films. I knew this will be sensible, entertaining and good looking film and I wanted to be part of it," she said.

"I found a friend in Ang. He has made me feel part of his family," she added. Life Of Pi is a 3D adventure film based on the novel of the same name by Canadian writer Yann Martel. The film is the tale of a teenage boy called Piscine Molitor Patel known as Pi, who is forced to survive on a lifeboat with a tiger after the ship he was travelling in sinks. Tabu is playing the role of Pi's mother.

"It is true that my role is not throughout the film. The film is essentially about the boy. He loses the family half way but the significance of my character is a lot more in the life of the boy. I know Ang Lee as a director will not give me something that is not worth. I know that," Tabu said.

It is for the third time that the versatile actress will be teaming up with Irrfan Khan on silver screen. This time she plays his mother in the film and Irrfan plays the adult version of Pi while the younger Pi is played by Delhi-based Suraj Sharma.

"We did Ghaath film but we did not have any scenes together. Then we did Maqbool together. Our pairing was good. Then we came together in The Namesake. Irrfan tries to do something different every time, he tries to approach scenes and roles differently," Tabu said.

"He comes from different school of cinema. It is interesting to work with him, he talks about world cinema and it is nice to talk to him. He is on a journey that is good," she added.