I am a Bengali. My mother is from Mangalore so it’s a mix of both cultures at home.
I like to read Bengali novels and short stories. I am not that fond of reading English books, as I don’t have a connect with it.
I look like a typical Bengali. Whereas the qualities people were used to seeing in heroes were dance and action, which aren’t really Bengali characteristics.
Commercial Bengali movies are all crass imitation of Telugu and Tamil movies. There are only a handful of directors like Rituparno Ghosh, Aparna Sen and Gautam Ghose who make quality films.
I have fond memories of Singapore. I shot here for around 25 days for ‘Bengali Babu English Mem.’
Being a Bengali, I have kept in touch with the cinema of my mother tongue.
I am learning Bengali because I want to dub for myself.
This trend used to exist in Bengali playback where singers and composers would have their own hit series. I am thrilled that Bengal is seeing a revival of that trend.
The relationship between Victoria Ocampo and Tagore is something every Bengali has heard about and there is a mystery attached to it. This mystery is enough to attract an actor.
At the age when Bengali youth almost inevitably writes poetry, I was listening to European classical music.
As I grew, I began learning and speaking a word or two in Bengali and that increased my friends circle.
My films play only in Bengal, and my audience is the educated middle class in the cities and small towns. They also play in Bombay, Madras and Delhi where there is a Bengali population.
I have worked in Telugu films. I found Bengali easier and sweeter than Telugu.
I’m obsessed with all things Bengali, man. I love fish, my maid is Bengali, I acted in Bengali and Bangladeshi films.
I was brought up in a Bengali family. We were three girls and never made to feel any lesser than men.
I am half Bengali and half Irish by birth.
I’ve had a weakness for Bengali directors, be it Rituparno Ghosh, Aparna Sen, or Goutam Ghose, because of their sensitivity towards cinema.
I have been doing Bollywood movies for a while, but my fans back home are always with me. They support me irrespective of whether I am working in a Bengali or a Hindi movie.
Mainstream Bengali cinema unashamedly tries to copy Bollywood. They forget that they don’t have the kind of budgets that Hindi filmmakers have.
I am songwriter. I do compose the music of songs that I write in Bengali. But I’ve never thought of composing for a film. That’s a different art altogether.
The day Bengali cinema lost touch with literature and started aping the south, the middle class audience stopped going to the cinema halls and later the larger audience too stopped going.
I love to cook, and both Pancham and Gulzarbhai loved to eat. Gulzarbhai loves my karela ghosht and my Bengali kheer.
I never thought I would sing professionally, but it so happened that I made Babul hear a Bengali song I had sung many years ago. He thought I should sing and bring out an album. I readily agreed.
I learnt to sing in Bengali, my mother tongue, then went on to sing in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati and every possible Indian language.
Aakhir’ stars Sanjay Suri and Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta. It’s very close to my heart and the most realistic work I’ve ever done.
Commercial Bengali movies are all crass imitation of Telugu and Tamil movies. There are only a handful of directors like Rituparno Ghosh, Aparna Sen and Gautam Ghose who make quality films.
I am neither a Bengali nor am I from Delhi’s St Stephen’s. I am an Allahabad boy.
I want to live in Kolkata; I don’t want to live in Europe – I can’t write there. I write in Bengali, and I need to be surrounded by the Bengali language and culture.
Aakhir’ stars Sanjay Suri and Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta. It’s very close to my heart and the most realistic work I’ve ever done.
What I like about Calcutta is the food. I like simple Bengali food like dal, shukto, fish, and mutton.
In Bengali films, I played my version of glamorous, where I played a wide-ranging characters.
I’m very happy that whenever we talk about Bengali cinema anywhere in India, people talk about me with a lot of respect.
Some felt my looks would not go down with the Bengali audience. They felt I was not photogenic. Others felt I was just what Bengali cinema needed when there was lack of glamour for heroine roles and there were few leading ladies around.
This trend used to exist in Bengali playback where singers and composers would have their own hit series. I am thrilled that Bengal is seeing a revival of that trend.
I think from ‘Hemanta’ to ‘Eagler Chokh’ and ‘Natoker Mato’ in between, there has been Shakespearean touch in Bengali films and that is because Bengalis are hooked to theater.
Recently, I did the Bengali film ‘Rang Milanti,’ directed by Kaushik Ganguly. I think my role in that is much better than in ‘Kahaani.’
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