Selfie time: After strolling through Prinsep Ghat, Koel and Sayantika pose beside a lamp post. Anything for a selfie!
A long walk along Strand Road and a long adda over some sip and bite kept Koel Mallick and Sayantika busy on a winter afternoon. t2 caught up with the Herogiri co-stars for a chat...
What’s your defination of a hero?
Sayantika: A hero is someone who does something good and thinks well of everyone. A gentleman in the true sense of the term.
Koel: I completely agree with Sayantika. For me a hero is not gender specific. Malala Yousafzai or Barkha Dutt, they are my heroes. They are courageous and fearless.
A hero you’ve met in real life...
Koel: I guess, for all daughters their father is the hero.
Sayantika: Yes, that’s right.
Koel: A girl looks for some qualities of her dad in the man she wants to spend her life with.
Koel, have you found any of your dad’s (Ranjit Mallick) qualities in your husband?
Koel: Definitely some! (Laughs)
Sayantika: Mithunda (Chakraborty) I think. No?
Koel: I guess all our heroes in Tollywood do a lot of herogiri anyway. Everyone’s got that hero thing in them, else they wouldn’t have been heroes. But since childhood my hero has remained constant and he is Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose!
Sayantika: Yes, a hero is someone who is larger than life.
Which hero’s films do you pay to watch?
Koel: Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks.
Sayantika: Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt and I am very fond of Shah Rukh Khan and she (points at Koel) is a fan of Salman Khan! (Both laugh out loud)
A heroine in Tollywood who behaves like one in real life?
Koel: Suchitra Sen... I have heard from Baba that she was a real diva.
FUN MUNCH: Koel and Sayantika polish off Galawati Kebab and Chicken Tangri Kebab at Oudh 1590. Pictures: Rashbehari Das
How much of a heroine are both of you in real life? Do you throw tantrums?
Koel: I’m not.
Sayantika: Not at all. Definitely I am a heroine for my audience but with my family and friends I am a regular girl.
Koel: I try to look in the mirror often, just to act like a heroine sometimes but it doesn’t excite me at all! I have read about Bollywood heroines, how they are so conscious of looking good all the time. And I’m just the opposite, so I sometimes wonder how is it that I am a heroine! (Laughs)
