She’s the first lady of Bengali cinema who is used to having the red carpets rolled out in her honour. But now Rituparna Sengupta is rewriting the script, switching to a new location, and letting the cameras roll on an entirely new plotline.

Could it be that Rituparna’s constant perseverance in front of the camera is about to pay off? Is Bengal’s leading lady about to carve out her own niche in Bollywood’s dog-eat-dog world on screen?

It has been a phenomenally busy year for the hazel-eyed star. At least five Hindi films in which she plays both leading and smaller roles are scheduled to make their box office debut over the next 11 months, including films by hit directors like Priyadarshan and David Dhawan.

Back in Bengal, she’ll be playing a leading role in a string of new releases including Anjan Das’s Swarger Niche Manush, Parathasarathy Joardar’s Megh Brishtir Khela, Raj Basu’s Piyalir Password and Sanat Dutta’s Footpath, all four of which are slated to hit the screens over the next month.

Has the star pulled off the tough feat of remaking herself for Bollywood? That should be clear in the coming months as one release after another hits the silver screen. She says: “I’ve won the National Award for Bengali cinema with Dahan. But I want to taste commercial success in Hindi films now. And I’m going to fight for it.”

(From top) Rituparna with director Karan Razdan (left) and Rohit Roy on the sets of Mittal vs Mittal; Rituparna with Parveen Dabbas in Sirf

Certainly, directors like Priyadarshan are backing her up. “I like Ritu because she acts with her eyes. She’s like Revathi and Tabu in that sense. And she’s glamourous too. After Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, there was a void in Bollywood, which, I think, Ritu can fill,” he says.

Priyadarshan has cast Rituparna in Bum Bum Bole opposite Atul Kulkarni and child star Darsheel Safari. Shot mostly on the tea plantations of Ooty, it’s based on terrorism and isn’t quite one of those hit masala capers that the director is known for. But Rituparna is hoping it will bring her both critical and commercial success when it hits the screens in April.

“It’s an emotional role. And it’s not always easy to act with children. But Priyadarshan is a very meticulous director,” she says.

Also coming up in April is director Karan Razdan’s Mittal vs Mittal, in which Rituparna’s on-screen character is caught in a turbulent marriage, and is even subjected to marital rape. Her co-stars in the film are Suchitra Krishnamurthy and Gulshan Grover.

(From top) Rituparna (second from right) shoots for her upcoming Bengali film, Comeback; A still from Chaturanga; With Angshuman in Trishna

Says Razdan: “Being an NSD man, I’m totally taken by the way Ritu gets into the skin of a character even before shooting begins. She’s also very unassuming and easy to work with.”

Rituparna is playing her Bollywood cards using shotgun tactics — she’s appearing in out-and-out commercial ventures and also picking smart multiplex ventures. “I’m a child of commercial cinema but I’m equally good at parallel cinema,” she asserts.

In the commercial zone, she’s scheduled to appear opposite Riteish Deshmukh in David Dhawan’s Do Knot Disturb. She’s excited because she’s trying her hand at comedy in this Govinda-Lara Dutta-Sushmita Sen starrer. “It’s not a huge role but I was interested in working with Davidji,” she says. Dhawan sees a lot of promise in Rituparna’s acting prowess. “She can act, that’s for sure. She was perfect for the role and I am sure you will be seeing her in a bigger role in my next film”, he said.

She has two more comic roles lined up — in Ashok Tyagi’s Dard-e-Disco, which is out in June, and in debutant director Srinivas Bhashyam’s Love Khichdi. Bhashyam has worked with Mani Ratnam before and Love Khichdi’s slated to be a hilarious comedy revolving around six girls and a chef, played by Randeep Hooda.

Then, Rituparna has also bagged a Warner Brothers’ film called SRK, which is being directed by Ajay Varma. She plays an independent woman who has to rescue her husband, played by Vinay Pathak, out of the many fiascos that he lands himself in. This multiplex film is due to release by May.

Besides, she’s also doing Anjan Dutt’s Hindi film, BBD, also starring Kay Kay Menon, with whom she made her Hindi film debut in Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh in 2005, and Jimmy Sheirgill. This one’s a political thriller and Anjan’s son, Neel Dutt, has scored the music. “Anjanda is a sensitive director and I loved working with him,” she gushes. Also, Sengupta has just bagged the lead role in Amol Palekar’s next film, Avartan.

The Tollywood star believes the time is ripe to make a transition to Bollywood because she feels that she has matured as an actor even as she’s capable of delivering glamourous roles.

“The time’s right with films like Iqbal and Rock On!! doing well at the box office these days. That’s why I’ve shifted base. I have no godfathers in Bollywood, and I know it’s a lone battle. But I will fight for my space as I did in Bengal once,” says Rituparna.

She’s also banking on her youthful beauty. “I look the same as I did 10 years ago,” says the star who follows a natural beauty care regimen, drinking a lot of water and juices and avoiding alcohol.

That’s not to say that Rituparna is neglecting her home turf even though she has barely spent one month out of the last three in Calcutta. Apart from the four releases coming up over the next month, she has signed on five more films including two with veteran directors Tarun Majumdar and Prabhat Roy. Roy gave Rituparna her first break with the hit Swet Patharer Thala 15 years ago.

(From top) Rituparna shared screen space with Rahul Bose and Rajat Kapoor in Anuranan; Main, Meri Patni aur Woh gave the actor her big break in Bollywood; (Below) Rituparna walked the ramp for Pallavi Jaikishen at the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai last year; Pix by Pabitra Das

She’s in town currently shooting for Comeback by Pallab Ghosh, a former assistant to Roy. Rituparna plays the double role of a mother and daughter in this film in which she’s paired opposite her long-time friend Firdaus.

Rituparna is ensuring that she’s doing a mix of commercial and offbeat films in Bengali too. Take her recent release, Trishna, which is creating quite a stir. Directed by Pritam Jalan, the film borrows heavily from the Bipasha Basu-John Abraham-starrer Jism, and Rituparna plays Tiasha, a woman with a mind of her own who’s completely in love with life.

“The film is rather ahead of its times. But I liked playing the bold woman. It’s a different kind of romantic film,” she says.

Meanwhile, she’s also doing Anup Das’s Hindi feature Paroksh, in which she plays a working woman who feels the pangs of motherhood when she sees her co-star Divya Dutta become a surrogate mother.

Then, she has Chanchal Mukherjee’s Sakhi Bhalobasha Kaare Koi opposite Firdaus, which is a take on the hit pair of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen, and Partho Ganguly’s romantic thriller Palaspur du Mile.

On a more serious note, Rituparna is acting in Subrata Sen’s Kobi Nartaki that’s based on a story by Sunil Gangopadhyay. There’s also Prabhat Roy’s film on environment pollution, in which Rituparna plays a widow, who meets a crusader, played by Mithun Chakraborty. “Ritu is simple, hard-working and totally professional,” says Roy.

Meanwhile, Rituparna is spreading her producer’s wings too. She set up her company, Bhabna Aaj Kaal, in 2003, and has produced several Rabindranath Tagore dance dramas so far. Dance, as most of her fans know, is her second love, and she choreographs and performs at least one Tagore dance drama every year. “The medium allows me to express my emotions and de-stresses me like no other,” she says.

Now, her production company is venturing into films too. She is lending her name to Shiboprasad Mukherjee’s film, Icche, which is based on a Suchitra Bhattacharya story about a mother-son relationship. And she has also produced a short film, Who am I? Ek Zindagi, made by Mumbai-based director, Jeet.

There are more Hindi films too coming her way. She has just signed up a film called Osama, made a young director Faisal Saif, and another one based on the Partition, which will be directed by Punjabi filmmaker Amarjit Singh.

Is the star taking on too much? Well, Rituparna will tell you that she has always fought hard for what she wants. Back as a young student of Lady Brabourne College, she chose to defy her parents — and delivered a hit with her very first film, Swet Patharer Thala.

“My parents wanted me to be an IAS or IPS officer. But the commercial success of films like Swet Patharer Thala, Moner Manush and Lathi in the late 90s decided that my future lay in acting,” she says.

Even as she raced up the commercial charts, Rituparna won critical acclaim with her performances in offbeat films like Dahan, Paromitar Ek Din, Anuranan and the recent Chaturanga.

Two years ago, she even forayed into television with her successful reality show, Ritur Mela Jhoom Ta Ra Ra.

Now, she’s hoping to climb to the top in Bollywood too. Her Bengali co-star Firdaus says: “Ritu has always been very ambitious and hardworking. She’s a responsible person and will conquer many horizons.” Certainly, Rituparna is giving it her best shot.u