Kalyan Ray flanked by Indraneil Sengupta and Chandan Roy Sanyal at Byloom on Saturday. Pictures by Rashbehari Das

Chandan Roy Sanyal tells t2 about playing a complex character who speaks in chaste Bengali in Aparajita Tumi…

How would you describe your role?

I play Ronojoy, a venture capitalist who is very rich, makes a lot of money but in the bargain forgets about his beautiful wife Ushashi (Kamalinee Mukherjee). Then how the relation between them gets plain and strained till it goes away.

What hooked you?

The people in the team. Prosenjit, Tonyda (Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury), Shoojit Sircar and of course Ranjan Palit whose 7 Khoon Maaf I’ve seen and really wanted to work with. It’s a crazy bunch of creative people so I thought I should also come on board.

Was it easy to get into this character?

I really respect and love women so I find it really difficult to fall into a character like Ronojoy who doesn’t have enough time for his wife because he’s always busy earning money. It probably happens to many living abroad and then a sense of emptiness settles in. It was a difficult role, complicated and complex and I had to really work hard on learning my lines well in chaste Bengali. I know the language but can’t really improvise in Bengali. I’m from New Delhi and I’ve done Hindi and English plays so I find it very difficult to think in Bengali.

The best part of shooting in the US?

I’ve been there before on a theatre tour for Tim Supple’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and performed at the Curran Theatre right in the heart of San Francisco and this time I had gone back to shoot for a film. In a way it was like homecoming, a reminder that you’ve moved on in life, from theatre to films.

What else have you been busy with?

I’ve been shooting non-stop. Just finished Love You To Death by Rafeeq Ellias which is travelling right now and just won the Audience Choice Award at the Alaska Film Festival. It will release in February around Valentine’s Day. Then there’s Prague coming up where I play a schizophrenic architect and BMW directed by Aditya Bhattacharya and produced by Javed Jaffrey. I have a gangster role of an underworld informer.

And Tolly?

I get a lot of offers and most of them want to cast me in very dark roles. I haven’t signed any yet and I’m not in a hurry. Tonyda and Laalda (Suman Mukhopadhyay) are my connections in Calcutta. Let me see what this film does.

Indraneil Sengupta on playing a coveted role in Aparajita Tumi, fatherhood and juggling cities…

Prosenjit wanted your role in Aparajita Tumi. What was so special about playing Yusuf?

It’s a very small role if you look at the length but very interesting. Yusuf is a Bangladeshi guy living in the US. He was Kuhu’s (Padmapriya) love interest in college but they fall apart. Later when Kuhu is going through a troubled phase in her marriage she bumps into him. Yusuf is a very pleasant character that comes and goes but leaves a strong impact on Kuhu’s life and in the film.

Did you connect with the character?

Indraneil is not Yusuf at all yet I connected with the character, you know. He’s a very positive guy, extremely vibrant and when he meets Kuhu after so many years he is able to pick up from where they had left off. I’m not like that at all. I don’t think I’m that vibrant a person. Neither would I be able to catch up like before if I happened to meet a love interest after many years. That way I had to act out Yusuf. I have tried putting on a slight Bangladeshi accent and I have two different looks because there is an age-wise transition for which I wore Tony’s oversized shirts!

How did the shoot go?

Excellent! My shots were primarily with Padmapriya. I had expressed my desire to work with Tony a while back. When this project was materialising, he called me to say it wasn’t the main role and a short one but there was no letting go once he narrated it to me. I was there in the US for 10 days. I shot for six days and shopped during the rest because Barkha was there with me.

Has fatherhood kept you busy?

It’s so much fun having a baby! It’s not like fatherhood has changed me much from what I was before Meera (his daughter) happened. But there’s one transformation. I was never comfortable with kids. I would shy away from handling them and feel embarrassed about holding a kid because I thought I would look stupid. But now, I love playing with my baby, holding her and loving her. My wife is quite impressed with me. But no, I don’t change nappies. I’ve done it once after which I requested Barkha to spare me unless in dire straits. I make a mess! It’s not practically possible to take a mother’s burden. Meera is three months old and unlike usual babies she’s very peaceful and sleeps quietly.

Doesn’t it get difficult living in Mumbai and working in Tollywood?

Yes, it’s difficult but Barkha has taken a break and she travels with me. Meera is already a frequent flier and she’s earned a lot of (air) miles! We need to have two houses and two cars in two cities. Everything has doubled but we want to keep Mumbai as our main base because I’ve always lived there and have my house there.

Professor-turned-actor Kalyan Ray tells t2 about enjoying his time out in the movies…

What do you play in Aparajita Tumi?

He’s somebody who has lost touch with the space and time in which most people live. And despite a disastrous event in his life he survives because of the undeniable affection of some of his close relatives. He lives in America and yet he’s completely detached. He is sort of like an emotional Robinson Crusoe. He’s there in the middle of family and in a way symbolises the great conflict within which many immigrants live. That head and heart are in two different places. It’s a small role but places huge responsibility on my inexperienced shoulders.

Were you difficult to convince or raring to go again?

I’m very comfortable working with Aniruddha. He is a marvellous director and very dear to me. Sunil Gangopadhyay and I have been friends. I respect him, love his work, I had translated his poems 20 years ago that was brought out by Penguin. This is one of his stories and I didn’t want to miss out on the chance of being in the film. I live on the East Coast. It was quite delightful to go to California. Furthermore, one of the things that drew me to the film was the complexity of the character that I was supposed to portray. Not everything is said. In fact I speak only in one scene. Anything else was acquired emoting and I loved the fact that Aniruddha allowed me to just adlib a very important sequence. We had discussed the character very intensely on several occasions and during that highly emotionally charged scene he just let me do my thing and it was done in the first take.

Having lived in America for so many years did you have anything to contribute to the relationship tale about Indians living abroad?

Yes indeed. Ranjan (Palit) who I’ve known since he was a child, Tony, and I used to sit and chat for hours. Bumba (Prosenjit) too had inputs. Tony’s understanding of how the Indian immigrant community works is amazing. It was interactive, everybody talked, had something to suggest and the film grew.

Are you enjoying being in the movies?

I’m enjoying it immensely. If the character is interesting, complex and fits my time frame I’ll do more roles. I can’t imagine playing a young character but many moviemakers today are cognisant of the fact that movie-making is not about two young people dancing around trees anymore.

What does your wife (Aparna Sen) have to say?

She is thoroughly amused! (Laughs.) She encourages me in doing anything that is worth doing and after all she was my co-actress in my first film (Antaheen)!

And your students?

They’re amused too, to see me in a totally different incarnation. There is a large Indian American population in the East Coast and some of them have seen my film. So after we’ve been discussing and debating 19th century British novels their reaction is usually an ‘Oh My God!’ when it occurs to them that the man on screen is their professor in the classroom!

Mohua Das