(From top) Dhritiman Chaterji in Pratidwandi; in discussion with Satyajit Ray; on the sets of Dronacharya with Soumitra Chatterjee

The general impression among many film-makers in Tollywood, that he is not interested in doing Bengali films, is something that seems to rankle Dhritiman Chaterji deep down. But then who's to blame' It has been several years since the actor severed tinsel ties and settled for a quiet life on the outskirts of Chennai.

His last Bengali film dates back to Moloy Bhattacharya's Kahini (1997), which went almost unnoticed. It was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black that brought him back in the spotlight last year.

If his Paul Mcnaully (Shernaz Patel's husband) was largely 'Bollywoodish', Aparna Sen's 15 Park Avenue brought Dhritiman closer home, with a Bengali milieu and character.

And now, the 60-year-old actor who had debuted with Satyajit Ray's Pratidwandi (The Adversary) is a frequent flier between Chennai and Calcutta, slipping in and out of town for film shoots. The one that brought him here most recently was Saibal Mitra's Dronacharya. The telefilm offered him an unusual character of a maverick, decadent aristocrat who wins a bet with a youth and insists that he chop off his thumb, as had been agreed.

'He is not your typical next-door neighbour, so the character had to be constructed carefully. This film depends totally on dialogue, it depends a lot on skilful acting,' says Dhritiman, who suggested (to Mitra) that Soumitra Chatterjee, his elder brother in Satyajit Ray's Ganashatru, be cast in the other key role.

'I have always felt that working with fine actors raises your level of performance as well. And I also thought the two of us together would prompt more people to see the film,' he reasons, settling down for a chat on a sultry evening at the KFTI studio in Tollygunge.

About a month ago, Dhritiman finished work on a Bengali feature film, Neel Chokhey Akash, by debutant director Nirmalya Banerjee. 'I have been doing films with first-time film-makers for very long. I did 36 Chowringhee Lane with Aparna, she was of course a friend, and then Ashoke Viswanathan's Shunyo Theke Shuru and Moloy Bhattacharya's Kahini,' he says. 'It's a risk. You have to depend on your intuition and assess the film-maker.'

In case of Neel Chokhey Akash, Dhritiman says he had liked the script ' 'there's a political context in it and the narrative is interesting' ' which has him playing an unsympathetic, middle-class patriarchal figure.

Though the character sounds stereotypical, Dhritiman has lapped it up, 'because I haven't done this kind of a role before'.

This, after all, comes from an actor who has 'always been offered very intense, intellectual and sympathetic' roles. 'In fact, I will be playing a negative character for the second time after Ganashatru in the telefilm Dronacharya... It's true that I wasn't keen on doing very conventional roles earlier. But nowadays, my satisfaction comes from doing things I haven't done before,' he explains.

Post-Black, Dhritiman is being offered a spate of middle-aged, strong and overbearing characters. But he doesn't really mind because that's a new area of work. 'Black opened up an area that was foreign to me. I have been getting a lot of proposals to do Hindi serials. These are financially tempting but I have resisted them till now' The opportunities are more in Hindi and English films than in Bengali,' he admits.

His last two feature films, yet to release, are in English. One is yet another debut vehicle, by Chennai-based documentary and ad film-maker Chetan Shah. The other is Anjan Dutt's The Bong Connection.

Though Dhritiman is looking westward, his heartstrings tug him towards Tollywood. 'Very different kind of films are being made these days, though not too many are happening in Bengal. I have been told by friends that the film Herbert is very good. I would like to work in such films. I like to do Bengali films and I am more than eager to do those kind of films,' he insists.