Padmapriya. Picture by Aranya Sen

Why are you doing a Bengali film, finally?

To start with, it’s a film. That’s how I look at it. An Indian film. I have worked in five Indian languages — Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. This will be my sixth. (Pauses for a moment.) No, I am not doing this to increase the number of languages (laughs out loud). It’s just that when he (director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury) came up with the script, I didn’t even know it was in Bengali. When I read the script, I felt like I belonged to the character. It was only later that I asked him the language. Being an army girl, I really feel that I belong to the country. I don’t see this film as a grand Bengali film entry. I have never seen my films like that. I am just keen to work with people who are interesting and who want to do entertaining cinema but still do something which will change trends at that point of time. You know, create a new tomorrow, in some way.

Everyone else in the cast and crew is Bengali. Doesn’t that worry you at all?

Bengalis or even Calcutta are not alien to me. Like Kerala was alien to me when I got into Malayalam films. I couldn’t even understand the sound of the language. But with Bengali, I’m much more at home. I used to come to Calcutta during the summer holidays. My grandparents have stayed here for 70 years near Deshapriya Park. My mom and her cousins refuse to speak in Tamil when they meet up. My mom, in fact, cries when she sees Howrah bridge. So I have had an overdose of Bengal, probably more than I would have wanted (smiles). Then last to last year I shot my film Pokkisham here in Calcutta. The entire love story was set here.

Will you dub for yourself in Aparajita?

I am going to try and dub for myself. See, the character is based in San Francisco and she doesn’t have many lines. I can, I think, catch the Bengali accent. It’s not tough, being a good Hindi person. I am not saying that I am ruling out the chance of someone else dubbing for me. I’ll say it’s a 90-10 chance.

Tell us a little bit about your character Kuhu...

From what I understand from the director’s point of view, Kuhu is a very regular woman. She just lost her aspirations somewhere midway. When you lose them for something which you believe is more important and then realise that you have also lost that, what is it that you go through as an individual.... And how that explicitly affects your outer world. There are some brilliant facets to her character. She is extremely straightforward but also very sensitive. She is full of contradictions.

Have you seen Aniruddha’s Anuranan and Antaheen?

No, I haven’t. I think each film has its own journey. I would like to discover him on the Aparajita journey. But I have done some basic homework on him. We also spent about five days in Mumbai and it was then, in my heart and mind, that I decided that I would like to work with him.

You were doing a high-flying job even a few years back and now you are a full-fledged actress. Are you happy with the change?

I was never interested in taking up acting as a profession. Fortunately I had the privilege of education and I do have a parallel career. I am an MBA (finance) and I was working at GE in mathematical research four years back. But it got too hectic to continue once I started doing films. Then I also did environmental law. And I would love to work in that field in the near future. Having said that cinema is not unimportant to me. If you love something you cannot prioritise or unprioritise it. Cinema is something which comes naturally to me... I never chose it. But yes, I do have a fall-back option.

Your Bollywood debut Striker didn’t quite make such a big impact. Any regrets on that front?

I don’t look at Bollywood as the ultimate thing. I am still looking at Tarantino and Spielberg and Scorsese (laughs). Striker was a great experience. It was, in fact, a half-Tamil crew. The cameraman was P.S. Vinod and Sid (Siddharth) was Tamil and most of my scenes were with him. I completely submitted myself to the director, Chandan Arora. It was a very difficult character to play because it wasn’t a typical rape scene. She lets go at one point. Koli women are actually like that. They are poor women but they are generous enough to give you food and sex and what not at that moment. And they are not regretful about that. The fact that we could capture this in a mainstream Bollywood film was a big thing for me.

What all do you plan to do in Calcutta?

It’s a very short trip but I want just go to the Maharani tea stall (off Deshapriya Park) and have kachori and jalebi and chai!