Arunima Ghosh. Picture: B.Halder

Did you find your role in Bappaditya Bandopadhyay’s Nayika Sangbad challenging?

I’ve been acting for 13 years and I have mostly played a bubbly girl. I was getting typecast. In Nayika Sangbad, my character Diya is like a breath of fresh air. Definitely, it’s my most challenging role till now. Though Diya is an actress, she is just the opposite of what I am. She is calculating and emotional.

Despite making a mark on television, you neither continued with TV nor did we see you doing too many films. Why?

When I started doing television in 2001, there weren’t too many good Bangla films being made. Good offers didn’t come my way. In television, I had reached saturation point. I was supposed to work in a film by Buddhababu (Buddhadeb Dasgupta) but he told me, ‘You have a

baby face, how can I cast you!?’ I worked so hard to knock off baby fat from my face. I don’t think I look like a baby anymore!

Your contemporaries Debleena Dutt and Monami Ghosh are still doing TV...

They are very powerful actresses. They have continued whereas I quit in 2004-2005. I have worked with Bumbada (Prosenjit) in a couple of films (Sangram, Hochheta Ki). I shouldn’t have been so choosy then. But since I wasn’t getting good offers, I went back to television. Now I realise that I had started working a bit too early.

Why do you think good offers didn’t come your way?

People misunderstood me a lot. I was supposed to work with Rituda (Rituparno Ghosh) in Chokher Bali but due to some misunderstanding I couldn’t do it. I was again offered a film by him and I suffered an asthma attack and reached half-an-hour late. I let go of a lot of offers because I felt they were not good but when I watched those films I felt otherwise. Later, of course, I worked with Rituda in the Tagore documentary Jeevan Smriti.... I was so immature I couldn’t take decisions.

Given a second chance, would you do things differently?

I would like to change everything. I would have made sure that I entered the industry only after college.

What does it take to land good projects in Tollywood?

Good PR skills is very important, which I lack. I am not a very money-oriented person. I am hungry for good roles.

How do you cope with your no-work phases?

I go shopping, go to my mamabari, watch movies.

Do you keep in touch with director Agnidev Chatterjee, who was once a close friend of yours? Will you work in his films?

No. But I am in touch with Sudipa (Mukhopadhyay), his wife. Well, I am a professional and if everything works out fine, I may do his films.