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Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
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Anuranan, Antaheen and now Aparajita Tumi. What’s with the letter ‘A’?
Well, I was never very good in studies so I could never graduate from letter A to B! On a serious note, I couldn’t have named Anuranan or Antaheen anything else. It wasn’t intentional. Just a co-incidence. I had decided to call this one Aparajita at first but there was a problem getting that title. Sunilda (Gangopadhyay) came up with Aparajita Tumi and we stuck to it. I have a problem of getting emotionally attached to anything. Be it spaces, human beings or inanimate objects. I think it’s been the same with letters of the alphabet too. My friends feel I have an OCD.
There’s no character called Aparajita in the film either…
No. The story is about the rivalry between two women and the self-decay of a man. In our practical lives, we are always trying to prove a point. We want to win. Thoughts about peer pressure, competition, the need to own a big car or a house or sport big brands often worry me. I find terms like achievement and success very vague. What is it that makes anyone a winner or a loser? I don’t think anyone is a failure in life. Everyone has something to contribute. Aparajita in Bengali means undefeated. According to me, the characters in Aparajita Tumi are all winners in their own right. That’s my film’s tagline — life beyond right and wrong.
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| Pradip (Prosenjit) is a simple Bengali man who has struggled hard
to educate himself, reached foreign shores and is immensely successful today. The character is not even 0.1 per cent fictitious |
Is Aparajita Tumi an extension of Anuranan and Antaheen?
That’s an interesting thought. Cinema is after all an extension of yourself and for me it has been a medium to tell a story that I feel connected to. A relationship between a man and a woman can have so many elements. It can be that of a girl mothering her boyfriend, sexual tensions, a brother and sister kind of relationship between a couple.
Anuranan was a relationship film that was naive, accidental, a mental thing. Antaheen was a modern love story where technology played an integral part in the characters’ lives. Aparajita may be about the husband-wife relationship or an extramarital affair but my view or my take is completely different. Whether you live in India or abroad, and no matter what you’ve achieved in life, there is a growing sense of self-decay. A void. Even that can be enriching for any man or woman. It takes you to a different plane altogether.
Rights and wrongs are very subjective. What if one is married yet attracted to somebody else? It’s probably not right but why is it wrong either? Jiboney onek kichhu bola baron… (In life a lot of things cannot be expressed) because it’s controversial. Aparajita Tumi deals with a lot of these complexities — love, conflict, void, degeneration and an interesting evolution from there. We try to pull out certain moments and truths that are usually presented in a more acceptable way to society. This film is an honest exploration of human minds.
After writing your own script for Anuranan and Antaheen, why did you opt for Sunil Gangopadhyay’s story Dui Nari Haate Torobari?
I had read this story four years ago. A good book always helps enhance your thoughts. The story has too many truths that we see all around us. A simple story and a true story. Somewhere there was this sense of identification. Every character in the story was a discovery for me. But my first thought on wanting to adapt it for a film was ‘ baba, America-y shooting!’ Fortunately I met Shoojit (Sircar) then and we were contemplating a film when I whispered this idea without too much expectation... he agreed!
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Ushashi (Kamalinee) is a vulnerable woman, aware that she is beautiful but with a sexual void that makes her insecure
Ronojoy (Chandan Roy Sanyal) is a pahuncha hua character.
I find people like him unreal |
How much of all these characters is real and how much fictitious?
Amakey diye shotti kotha bolabey (You will make me tell the truth)? (Laughs.) Bumbada’s (Prosenjit) character Pradip is very much like successful CEOs and MDs I’ve come across while making ad films. He is a gentleman who speaks very little and observes a lot... it’s an amazing quality that comes with age. He’s a simple Bengali man who has struggled hard to educate himself, reached foreign shores and is immensely successful today. The character is not even 0.1 per cent fictitious. There are traces of me in him too.
Kuhu (Padmapriya) is a very modern-day woman, outspoken and brash, says things that she doesn’t mean but with a very soft core and a sense of understanding, determination and integrity that is strong.
Ushashi (Kamalinee Mukherjee) is a vulnerable woman, aware that she is beautiful but with a sexual void that makes her insecure. I have seen many women like them. Ronojoy (Chandan Roy Sanyal) is someone who believes in lobhey paap, paapey mukti (Greed is vice and in vice lies liberty). He is a pahuncha hua character. I find people like him unreal. Indraneil’s (Sengupta) character Yusuf is a dil dariya Bangladeshi boy who breezes in and out and ruffles feathers on his way. Of course, Sunilda wrote with a certain realism to them but I’ve been travelling to America for nearly seven years and I discussed with my friends there and they could relate to these characters very strongly and the feelings of nostalgia, love and longing.
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Yusuf (Indraneil Sengupta) is a dil dariya Bangladeshi boy
who breezes in and out and ruffles feathers on his way
Kuhu (Padmapriya) is a very modern-day woman, outspoken and brash, says things that she doesn’t mean but with a very soft core and a sense of understanding, determination and integrity |
Why did you opt for someone like Padmapriya who is neither a Tolly face nor a Bolly star?
When you write a script, you imagine a face for a character. I had seen both Padmapriya and Kamalinee in a film called Kutty Srank. I had known Kamalinee for a long time but not Padmapriya. I met her at a tea party for the National Awards, I introduced myself and asked her if she would ever be interested in doing a Bengali film. I knew this was my Kuhu from the manner in which she spoke or moved. There was no logical, grammatical or commercial angle to why I cast her. It was just a gut feeling. We went to Palghat (in Kerala) for workshops with her while she was busy shooting with Mohanlal.
And Kamalinee?
In Kamalinee I find a certain sweetness which makes her a very interesting fit for this borderline character she plays in the film.
Has working with Ranjan Palit (cinematographer) made a difference to your film-making format?
Since Ranjanda used to make documentary films, he has a beautiful sense of framing the drama. He has this extraordinary ability to get into a scene holding his camera. It becomes the third character and moves along with the rest. That helped create a lovely resonance between the actors and the camera.
Where all did you shoot?
We were in the US for two months, of which 15 days were spent waiting for Padma’s visa clearance! At one point we thought the shoot might not take off. We went through lots of ups and downs. We shot the outdoors at the Half Moon Bay, which is the road bending along the Pacific; we shot at the very picturesque Carmel; for the indoors we shot at our friends’ houses in San Jose and San Francisco.
It’s the first Bengali film shot entirely in the US. How expensive did it turn out to be?
An expensive proposition indeed. But Shoojit provided every possible support, including my wish of using a helicopter for the opening shots. We have some very good friends who have come forward to help and where there is friendship there is prosperity. Moni (Mahendra Soni of Shree Venkatesh Films) is helping us. They produced our music, promoted it and will also help with the distribution. We’re releasing the film across the main metros and Databazaar is planning to release the film in US theatres within two weeks of its release here. It’s all been very collaborative.
The man-woman relationship has been the mainstay of your films. Do you ever plan to try your hand at some other genre?
I love to handle relationship stories. I’ll get out of it only after I’ve had my fill. I still haven’t reached that stage. There’s so much more that I’m waiting to explore. Lots of people have asked me to do comedy. I love comedy and people find me and my words and actions quite comical too, so I would try that one day! Also, thriller is something I’ve grown up on. But I want to follow my heart. That’s probably why I take too much time to make a film, for a story to marinate inside me. I want to make a Hindi film next.
Why Hindi?
I was fearing that question! Actually Hindi will help me reach a larger audience. I haven’t done it so long because I dream and think in Bengali. But it’s clashing with my plans for two other Bengali scripts.... I’ll get down to it in the next six months. I’m very keen on working with Bumbada (Prosenjit) again. He was a discovery for me. In Aparajita Tumi you have to see him to believe how a star like him has taken behavioural acting to a different level. I have to explore him further.
How would you rate yourself as a filmmaker today?
I have groomed myself but am not sure how much I’ve matured. I regularly watch films, mix with all kinds of people but I am still quite childish. That doesn’t stop me from doing well in my business but I don’t want to become an overtly mature person taking only right decisions at the right time. I have done nearly 500 ad films, so I know all about the technical rights and wrongs but films are not about rights or wrongs. It’s a spontaneous effort. I am emotional, impulsive and I like being that way.... I’ve just done three films, I am still learning and am still mediocre!
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