You are not seen on television anymore. Why?
I have made a conscious decision not to do television. I did around 140 episodes in Bhabhi, then played an important role in Asha Parekh’s Kuch Pal Saath Tumhara and was really very tired to go on without offering something new. I have given up television to concentrate on theatre and films. Television does not attract me any more - no anchoring, no serials, no reality shows, nothing except a few commercials that bring in the money.
What criteria do you apply for a film assignment?
There are two ways in which an actor can choose. One is accepting an offer that brings in a lot of money but without a challenging role. The other is to accept a role that does not bring much money but is very challenging even if it is not the main role. Or, the film itself is challenging enough to draw the actor. I use the second one - the character must be challenging or the film on the whole must be challenging. I chose Bhalo Theko directed by Gautam Haldar because the film was very challenging though my role was secondary to the leading lady’s. The same goes for the only sci-fi in Bengali, namely Patal Ghar. In Anjan Das’ Jara Bristitey Bhijechhilo, I was challenged both by the character and the whole film. It was tough because it was much distanced from my real self. The setting was semi-rural West Bengal in the 1960s. I had to play the famous poet Joy Goswami without really being him. I had to understand the tradition of Bengali poetry. I took back audiotapes of Goswami’s poems and heard them. I discussed these with his friends. The character had to express the fear Bengalis have about relationships. It was an extremely sensitive character.
Wasn’t playing Sribilash in Chaturanga a big leap?
Right. It was a leap from the contemporary Joy Goswami and his poetry straight to a character from a Tagore novella. In the original novel, Sribilash is just a narrator though Tagore did dedicate an entire chapter to him. I had to build the character from scratch. Sribilash is poor but brilliant. This fine blend of economic deprivation and intellectual brilliance invests him with the power of reason, an objective way of looking at life in general and Sachish in particular. He moves from a small town to Kolkata. He is deeply impressed by Sachish yet disturbed by his friend’s constant state of restlessness. He is a good-hearted man who lived at the turn of the century. The film, the story and the character were a big challenge. It was not easy but Suman, the director, and my co-actors were a tremendous help. I read the original novel in Bengali and another diary of Sribilash. Unlike Sachish, who, in my language, is an ideological fundamentalist, Sribilash keeps the doors and windows of his mind open and is yet rooted to the soil.
Isn’t that last bit a quote from Mahatma Gandhi?
Yes, it is. Gandhi keeps haunting me because in some way or another, the links are too close. I played the title role in the English play Sammy written by Pratap Sharma and directed by Lilette Dubey. The role fetched me the National Award for Best Actor in Theatre at the Mahindra Excellence Awards in 2006. I had to play Gandhi over a five-decade span - from 26 to 74 years. Sammy was an abusive adjective used to refer to Indians in South Africa during Gandhi’s time. The play was an amazing learning experience for me and it also changed me as a person. I had to lose 16 kilos for the role. We took it to the Belgian Arts Festival and also to the USA and UK.
What next on Joy Sengupta’s select platter?
I am doing a film on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in English but shooting is still to begin. I have done an important role in Sujoy Ghosh’s Hindi Aladdin that is scheduled to release soon. The film co-stars Amitabh Bachchan and Ritiesh Deshmukh. I am negotiating for some more films but things are yet to be finalised. I have made my choice. I am happy.
