He plays a smart thief, she plays a brat, and together Ritwick Chakraborty and Parno Mittra as Michael Tendulkar and Suzie Q get along like a house on fire in Pratim D. Gupta’s June 22 film Ahare Mon. A t2 chat with Parno and Ritwick at Park Plaza...

What kind of feedback did you get once the teaser came out?

Parno: (Turning to Ritwick) Everyone went, ‘Is that Saif Ali Khan in the film?’ 

Ritwick: I don’t know whether I should be happy about it or not! (Laughs). I think it’s because of the hairstyle and glasses. I think he had a similar look in some other film. 

Parno: I got messages like, ‘How did you end up falling for a cabbie and a thief, both played by Ritwick, in different films?’ We all loved the teaser and trailer and kept on rewatching it. It looked really fresh. People are excited seeing us back together. Our story has a fun element to it. 

Tell us about your characters...

Ritwick: I play Michael Tendulkar, who is a smart thief, and he is very dildaar. It’s a love story with a twist, so he is a premik too.

Parno: I play Suzie Q, a spoilt brat who spends her father’s money. She doesn’t know what to do with her life, so she spends a lot of money. She doesn’t have friends, so she keeps herself entertained. She has made her own little world. She does things on her own and she keeps herself happy by doing a bunch of things. Suzie meets Michael and then things happen. It’s a crazy love story.   

Ritwick’s character asks, ‘So, now we’ll rob together?!’ Did you ever have such notions as a child?! 

 

Parno: As a child I wanted to rob! 

Ritwick: A bank?

Parno: Remember Bonnie and Clyde, everyone loves that film. Isn’t it fun to do something wrong in life?! I’ve done it also, as a child. Once I went to a store and picked up a packet of kaju. It was a small little thing. It was fun to break rules. 

Ritwick: We can break rules, otherwise too. I had also tried my hand at this kind of dushtumi as a kid. There was a sweet shop in Barrackpore and my four friends and I would go there. There was a display of sweets at the front while the gulab jamun would be kept at the back. We aimed for the sweets. So we would ask for one gulab jamun and the moment the lone shopkeeper turned around to get it, a layer of sweets from the front would disappear (laughs). No one at home knows about it till now. It was an adventure. Once, all of us went to Puri… and we all know about the famous sweets there. So we entered a sweet shop and one of my friends started acting out the way he could ‘lift’ a piece of sweet. Thankfully, we didn’t follow him and he didn’t do anything stupid there (laughs).   

Parno: Of course, with age you cannot do all of this. You become conscious and careful about the things that you do.

Ritwick: You have to act your age. 

How did the high-five scene happen?

Parno: The things that you get to do in Pratim’s films… you get to do slow-mo runs, or high fives or hair flips or be the diva. One gets so much space to do it. Pratim is the only one who makes me play the role of a rich girl.

From when did the two of you start sharing screen space? 

Parno: We have been acting in the same films since the last four years. 

Ritwick: Before that we had a very cordial thing, the hi-hello one. Now she calls me Ritwickda.

Parno: That only comes naturally, since we are so pally and friendly. 

Ritwick: It’s like the way one would say ‘Neruda’!       

So the universe conspired to have the two of you working together — like you say in the trailer?

Parno: We became friends since Bheetu. We gossiped a lot. There are two gossip queens in this 
industry — Mainak (Bhaumik) and Ritwick. 

Ritwick: This is not true at all. 

Parno: Every time he sees my face he sees gossip! 

Ritwick: There is some truth to it!

Parno: I am a kid in front of them.

Ritwick: She is the source (laughs).

Parno: I see all wrongdoings in front of me. If someone holds hands, my eyes will travel towards that. What do I do?!

Ritwick: When I meet Mainak, we finish our work talk in 10-15 minutes, and then we gossip. I am kidding of course (laughs). 

Parno: It’s always a plus to work with someone who is so easygoing. I know of actors who would cut a shot if it goes slightly out of syllabus. I have faced those situations. With Ritwick he doesn’t have that problem. If I improvise he’ll also do it accordingly. If I forget a line he’ll manage. When we are working we don’t discuss our lines.  

Ritwick, we usually get to see you in intense roles, but here you are doing something fun...

Ritwick: Yeah, that’s great.

Parno: Pratim gives him very nice roles. 

Ritwick, will we get to see you in masala films?

Ritwick: People who are making such films need to have a vision where I fit in. Maybe I don’t fit in that format in which they are made. I know that. But if something nice comes along, I am open to it. Why not?

Parno, like you say in the trailer, what is the blockbuster thing you would like to do in your life?

Parno: Every actor wants a blockbuster movie in their career. And life should be blockbuster type (Ritwick nods in agreement).

Picture: B. Halder