Be it the launch of some high-end fitness gear or a high-profile gymming club, the one Tollywood celebrity ?most wanted? for the ribbon-cutting job is not she with a pretty face but he with a well-toned physique. And when it comes to body basics, Tota Roy Chowdhury is sought out by not just the fitness industry in town, but also by his colleagues in tinsel town. So you have a Jisshu Sengupta or a Parambrata Chatterjee picking up a tip or two about weights and workouts, and even a Sabyasachi ?Feluda? Chakraborty touching base with Tota before kick-boxing the goons in Bombaiyer Bombete.

Tota may be raring to tunnel his passion for fitness into Tollywood action films, but the bespectacled Bihari from Rituparno Ghosh?s Chokher Bali currently finds himself juggling a wide variety of films. In the pipeline are Rituparno?s Sunglass, Arjun Chakraborty?s directorial debut, and Reshmi Mitra?s Char Adhyay. Sandip Ray?s Tintorettor Jishu, first-time director Suman Ghosh?s Padakkhep and Satabdi Roy?s Abhinetri are under production.

Sunglass, an urban comedy, will be shot simultaneously in Bengali and Hindi on the same sets, starring Konkona Sen Sharma as the heroine. The male lead will be played by Sanjay Suri in the Hindi version and by Tota in Bengali. So each scene will be first shot in Bengali and then in Hindi or vice versa ? a format followed by Shakti Samanta (Aradhana), points out Tota, who is reluctant to speak about Sunglass but can barely hide his excitement.

?It?s going to be a comic take on the dynamics of a husband-wife relationship. That?s all I can say at this stage. We all will attend the final script reading session with Rituda,? says Tota, on his third film with the Dosor director.

With a parallel hero on the sets (Sanjay Suri), Sunglass is going to keep Tota on his toes and the actor is eager to take up the challenge. ?An element of competition is always welcome. The advantage of such a set-up is that you are working with fantastic actors and I will try my best to be as good as, if not better than, Sanjay.?

The other apprehension is that of the two men being influenced by each other?s performance, placed as they are in identical situations, but Tota feels the Hindi film will have a sensibility different from the film made with a Bengali audience in mind.

At the other end of Tota?s role roster is Reshmi Mitra?s adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore?s Char Adhyay later this week, where he plays Antu, a youth who joins the underground revolutionary movement after falling in love with Ela. His co-stars are Rituparna Sengupta and Sabyasachi Chakraborty, from whom he has ?absorbed a lot by just observing?.

With his favourite actor, Tota has yet another exciting shoot schedule ahead. For Tintorettor Jishu, he will help Feluda (Sabyasachi) chase smugglers and do some fight scenes in Hong Kong. ?I am very good in action scenes and I want to do action films, that also have song and dance,? says Tota, also eager to make a mark with the likes of Swapan Saha and Haranath Chakraborty.