Dino Morea with Bipasha Basu

What does Dino Morea like most about Calcutta? “Rui maachher jhol” and his “Bengali friends”. There is, of course, no raaz about one of those ‘friends’.

But what is still a big mystery is why all of a sudden the ‘oh he’s so cute’ screen loverboy is hell bent on going grey? In fact, Dino is so “wild and violent” in Mahesh Manjrekar’s forthcoming Rakht, that he even beats up his wife (a hatke Neha Dhupia) on screen.

“I don’t know whether my character is black or grey — it is just excessively aggressive. At the moment, the industry is at such a stage that no one is really worried about set images. It is more important to be an actor and play a character… I am definitely in experimental mode,” says the actor who is currently shooting in Mumbai for another Manjrekar film, Deh.

Dino is ‘different’ in Deh too, where he falls in love with an older divorced woman, played by Jaya Prada making a comeback of sorts. “If you take out the age difference, it is a normal love story but finally Deh is about relationships where one gets better while the other deteriorates every day. It was an absolute pleasure working with someone as professional as Jaya Prada, who has done more than 200 films in her career. There is so much you can learn just watching her.”

As far as being linked to Aparna Sen’s Gulel — now stalled — goes, Dino cannot hide his eagerness to work with the National Award winning director. “If she does offer me the film in future, I will definitely do it because I think she is a fantastic director,” declares Dino.

While he just wants to come back to the city to have his share of shorshe ilish (“too many bones though”, he confesses) and mishti doi (“it’s the best”, he smiles), he wants to do everything he can for his brother’s new restaurant Crepes Station Café in Mumbai. “It has turned out quite well and I am just doing my bit for it,” he says in matter-of-fact manner.

With Rakht slated to release on September 3, Dino is also upbeat about Saurabh Shukla’s psychological thriller Chehra, opposite Bipasha Basu. “That should release on September 17 and the promos should be on the telly in the next couple of days. It was great to work with Bipasha again — she is really a fine actress,” says Dino, steering clear of any more Bips baatein.

October sees Dino revert back to the conventional hero in Neeraj Pathak’s Gumnaam opposite Mahima Chaudhuri. Then again it’s his evil avatar at play in Padam Kumar’s Kabhi Bhi Kahin Bhi.

“It’s tiring to stay stuck to those goody-goody roles,” he signs off. Ah, well!