Why don’t you lean in a bit?” Prosenjit tells Kushum Shikder. It’s a sunny March morning; Prosenjit and the Bangladeshi actress are doing a photo shoot for t2 in the Tolly star’s Ballygunge home. Kushum, who plays Prosenjit’s wife Layla in Goutam Ghose’s film Shankhachil (releases today), seems a tad shy but Prosenjit is quick to put her at ease. Shoot over, the two settle down for a chat with t2…    

Kushum, why were you feeling shy?

That’s not shyness, Dada-ke ami bhoy pai! (starts laughing, Prosenjit rolls his eyes)

Prosenjit: I just don’t know why. You have done a film with me and you are still saying that you are scared of me?!
Kushum: This fear — which comes out of sheer respect — will always be there. I can’t think of him as just another co-artiste, right? Whenever I think this is Prosenjit, amar shob ulta palta hoye jaay (it gets all confusing). 

Bumbada (Prosenjit), how do you deal with this?

I understand what she is trying to say. It is probably something that happens to me when I am with Soumitrakaku (Chatterjee). However, people know that I make those working with me for the first time feel at home, so that the 
chemistry flows on screen. In Shankhachil, we are playing a couple married for 11 years.

Kushum: Dada made things so easy for me from Day One. He made me so comfortable. 

Prosenjit: It’s important for me to keep those personal touches outside of work too. If there’s an early morning shoot, I tell my heroines to go to sleep early. And they listen to me since they know I’m saying it for the good of the film. In fact, I 
remember telling Raima (Sen) not to go to the discotheque since she had an early morning shoot. I called up Moon Moondi (Sen) to convey the message.

Did you also tell Kushum not to go to the disc?!

Prosenjit: Just the opposite! I would tell her to go to the disc (laughs out loud)!! She is so lazy. 

Kushum: This is something that only my parents and close friends know about me. I do the opposite of what someone asks of me. So Dada understood this really early. He would tell me not to do something and immediately I’d do it.

Prosenjit: We wanted her to increase her diet a bit so that she would look the part. So I would  tell her not to eat and she would do just the opposite. She would ask, “Khai na Dada?!” (turns to Kushum) Should I tell everyone the name I gave you?! (Kushum mock-protests and then gives in).

Kushum: The name is sweet!

Prosenjit: I call her Putli. She is always carrying around a bunch of small bags... and she is not bothered about getting lunch boxes or make-up cases. For a Goutam Ghose film, one has to get up by 3.30am, do the rehearsal and go for the shoot by 4.30 or 5am. I am used to it. 

Kushum: I would wake up at the crack of dawn, all yawning and sleepy-eyed, and hear that Dada was out jogging! 

Prosenjit: However, I see that at that time she is only worried about these five-six small bags. Who knows what’s inside them. And she is obsessed with cleanliness, always bringing out wet tissues and hand sanitisers.

Kushum: Once we had to even stop the car while we were moving from one location to the next since I panicked, fearing that I had left behind a putli. But finally I found it. I generally carry a lot of small things with me, like handwash, wet tissue, lotion, perfume, mouth wash. So I carried all these things in bags with me wherever I went and I used to be very careful about them. I would ask the production people about my belongings every now and then. Eventually Bumbada started calling me Putli, and many people from the production started calling me by that name thinking it’s my nickname.

Bumbada, we saw pictures of thousands of people flocking to the locations to watch you shoot… 

Prosenjit: Yes. I have never shot in Taki. Now, the people obviously were expecting a glamorous Prosenjit. They saw me as someone who was frail and looking sick (Prosenjit plays a teacher). And I could hear them whispering, ‘Is this Prosenjit?’ In Bangladesh, crowds would gather in the dark. They would bring posters that read ‘Welcome Prosenjit’. And they understood that I would stop and wave at them every day. And the crowds swelled. Also I got to see that they have really held on to the Bangaliana. I feel this film also says that whatever happens one shouldn’t move away from their roots.

What’s the message of the film?

Prosenjit: Goutamda always tells a humane story, and the layers of the story address a wide range of topics. We are telling the story of the crisis of people living in border areas and that tells a larger story of the struggles of so many people, through one film. Goutamda could have easily started work on the next film immediately after the success of Moner Manush. But he doesn’t believe in making a film every year. Shankhachil happened suddenly.

What would Goutamda say when you would ask him about making a film after Moner Manush?

Prosenjit: He would say, ‘Acche achhe, achhe toh’. And then one fine day he calls up and says, ‘Where are you?’ We met immediately. ‘Would you like to listen to this?’ he asked me, and narrated a four-liner. He excused himself after this, and once he came outside he found me in the garden already working on my character. And he said, ‘Yes, I have understood. I’m done. Hoye jabe.’ The moment I got to know that I’d play a teacher, I started thinking about how he would sit, walk… the image of Soumitra Chatterjee as a teacher in Satyajit Ray’s Ashani Sanket came to mind. Later, I also interacted with people affected in the border areas, tried to learn their psychology.

Kushum, have you tried the food in Calcutta?

I don’t feel there is any difference. I ate what I generally eat at my home in Dhaka. I just had my food less oily which I do back at home as well.

AT A GLANCE

• Goutam Ghose’s Shankhachil tells the story of a family of three living near the Indo-Bangladesh border, capturing the crisis of people living in border areas. 
• Prosenjit plays Badal, a schoolteacher in a village. 
• Kushum plays Layla, Badal’s wife. The couple have a daughter called Rupsha, played by Shajbati. 
• Prosenjit and Goutam Ghose have come together six years after Moner Manush. That too was an Indo-Bangladesh joint venture like Shankhachil. 
• Shankhachil won the National Award for Best Bengali Film this year. 

Arindam Chatterjee
What is your message to Prosenjit? Tell t2@abp.in