Jisshu and Malabika in Kokhono Biday Bolo Na

Actor-turned-producer Jisshu Sengupta tells t2 why he is gung-ho about his September 10 release Kokhono Biday Bolo Na.

You seem to be very upbeat about Kokhono Biday Bolo Na...

Yes, I will be very disappointed if the film doesn’t work. My expectations from this film are very high mainly because of Murliji (director S.K. Murlidharan). He is a fabulous director! He can really bring out the best in his actors. That apart, Kokhono Biday is totally my film. If there are 100 scenes, I am there in 90 of them! The rest of the cast — newcomer Malabika, Rajatava Dutta and Kalyani Mondal — are all very good. Besides, the story has been told in a different and interesting way. There are lots of flashbacks. Even the love angle has a different treatment despite being a masala film.

And why is this film so important to you?

See, every film that I do is important to me except the ones I do just for money. Kokhono Biday is important because after a long time I have done a commercial film which has been shot well and executed differently. My last two films — Abohoman and Shob Charitra Kalponik — were non-mainstream films, so the audience will see a different Jisshu in this film.

What do you play here?

I play Akash, who is loved by his family. But there’s a dark side to him too. That’s all I can say for now. Malabika plays my love interest.

Don’t you think Kokhono Biday may have had a better chance of succeeding if you had paired up with an established heroine instead of a newcomer?

No. I have always worked mostly with newcomers. The script and the director are more important to me than who’s paired opposite me. I believe in good cinema. A film can be either good or bad, there’s nothing in between and I want to be a part of good films. I have rejected seven films in the last three months, something that I have never done before. I usually don’t say no easily. But now I have decided not to do films just for money. I am paid well by my production house Blue Water Pictures, which is run by my wife Nilanjanaa, though I am a glorified peon there! My monthly salary is enough to run my house, thanks to my wife.

Your last commercial release had a short run at the box office...

Yes, Krodh released a few months back and it did average business. It wasn’t noticed. But I have a few interesting films lined up for release, like Atanu Ghosh’s Takhan Teish, which is a story spanning 48 hours where the protagonist played by me meets four women. Then there’s Noukodubi, which is Rituda’s (Rituparno Ghosh) first commercial film in terms of treatment. I think Noukodubi is Rabindranath Tagore’s only commercial story! I am also looking forward to Neel Mukhopadhyay’s romantic comedy Ektu Onnyorokom where I am paired opposite Arpita. I am also doing Murliji’s next film.

What about your partnership with the other production house, Shree Tirupati Films?

Well, our first film from Shree Tirupati is Anindo (Ekhane Akash Neel) Banerjee’s Goley Maley Goley Maley Pirit Koro Na. But the film is stuck because of a cash crunch. Once the money starts rolling, we will resume shooting. Shree Tirupati Films will churn out only commercial films, while Blue Water Pictures is interested in doing a different kind of cinema.