She is the intuitive actress, he the iconoclastic filmmaker. She affectionately calls him Babai, and he calls her Goltu. She finds him “principled”, he finds her “naive, sweet and fiery”. And together they get along like a house on fire. A t2 chat with filmmaker Q and his live-in partner actress Rii, who have been together since 2003.

What does Valentine’s Day mean to you?

Rii: It’s just another day. We don’t remember celebrating Valentine’s Day together in 11 years!

Q: This day doesn’t hold any meaning for me since it has no socio-cultural significance.

Rii, is Q a romantic person?

Rii: Q’s sense of romanticism comes through in his work. Otherwise, he has surprised me with gifts like flowers and chocolates and kochuri at 6 in the morning, mostly to make up after a spat!

Q: Our work is entirely based on the idea of love, but not the societal love that people expect... it’s more in a utopian, hippie, communal sort of way. I have grown up believing love is unilateral. If you have to call yourself an artiste, you have to be romantic. The level that we are into each other, both mentally and physically, is because of the love. And it has always been volatile. We feel like kids. We have taken up the position of being chiro premik (eternal lovers)...

Rii: Romance is more spiritual for us.

How long have you known each other?

Q: She has been stalking me since our South Point days! (grins; he passed out in ’92, and she in ’96)

Rii: What! I had seen him only once or twice in school since I was dating a friend of his who was also called Kaushik! And then I met him in 2003, when I auditioned for his film, Tepantorer Math. I told him that I was from South Point and he said, “Tor ja height, chokhe porar moto chhilo na!”

Why were you attracted to each other?

Q: She is this sweet, naive girl who also becomes this completely different character, like a furious ball of energy that doesn’t know how to release itself. This dichotomy was the major point of attraction. I was coming out of a marriage and I had no intention of getting married again. Marriage was the last thing on my mind. Since I had taken up this extreme position, I had to be taught something by life. I found myself crazily attracted to her, and not understanding why. There’s one side of me that she doesn’t understand and one side of her which I don’t, and that’s the reason why we are together. There’s this yin yang kind of energy happening, which we feel at a close physical level. We cannot understand our minds, but our bodies understand each other. That’s how we cohabit.

What’s the foundation of your relationship?

Q: The body...

Rii: Besides the body, we are very good friends. He is my man, I am his woman, we love each other, love each other’s bodies. He is my best friend. He is my father, lover. Sometimes I need the body, love, affection...