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| Raima Sen at Taj Bengal. Picture: Pabitra Das |
In between downing cups of coffee and munching on cookies at Taj Bengal’s business centre, Raima Sen takes a call from an unknown director, talks to him for a good 10 minutes and even scribbles down her role on a piece of paper... before settling down for a t2 chat on her May release, the controversial Children Of War (Hindi) directed by Mrityunjay Devvrat.
How many films old are you?
In my 17-year career, I have done about 46-47 films.
How do you remain so grounded?
Mom (Moon Moon Sen) and dad (Bharat Dev Varma) are very chilled out. Maybe that’s why. My grandmother, well, we’ve always seen her as our grandmother, very aloof from movies and stardom.... My mother is a people’s person.
Okay, coming to Children Of War, the trailer shocks and disturbs. How did your family react?
Mom thought the trailer was brilliant and she is someone who is very critical about what I do. She was so happy that every time I went out with her she would say ‘show them the promo’. She has a lot of expectations from the film. Neha Panda (actress-stylist) told me, ‘Oh I have got goosebumps’.
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You were cast after half of Children Of War had been shot. How did Mrityunjay convince you?
I was actually shooting in Calcutta when he called me. I had heard he had taken screen tests of a lot of actresses in Calcutta. Anyway, I have a phobia about screen tests and I never went. He sent me the script and I read it and thought it was great. He sounded very confident about the film and I loved my character too because I have never done something like this before. I have only seen such roles in the movies. He pleaded that at least if I could meet him. So for the first time in my life I went to another city for a director!
He met me at the hotel and asked ‘What do you think about the script?’ I said ‘It’s great’. Then he told me that for the film he would totally rely on his actors. And as you know I am completely a director’s actress. I told him let me just play it real and you capture that and don’t make me do 10 takes. I have never really done a movie without any thinking or reference.
I play Fida, a Bangladeshi woman who is tortured by Pakistani soldiers. Indraneil (Sengupta), who plays my husband, is a journalist. I get abducted from the house after being raped and I am put in a concentration camp. There’s Victor Banerjee, Farooque Shaikh, Tillotama Shome.... It’s about the Mukti Joddhas of Bangladesh in 1971.
Wasn’t the shoot really gruelling?
Yes, there’s a scene in a truck where our hands and legs are tied with thick ropes and Pavan Malhotra opens the gate and we all fall together. Even though there was a mat below we were all falling from a height on top of each other. I was like, oh my god, how are we going to do this? We did and lots of girls got hurt. But we survived!
Then there’s a scene where we were watered with a hosepipe. We were made to wear just blouse and petticoat and they were hosing us down in the cold Delhi night. So many girls fainted. We even had to stand and wait for the light to change from dark to dawn. He just made us stand for eight hours!
Did you at any point feel why you had accepted the offer?
Yes, when I was shooting so much and not getting enough sleep. I called Mrityunjay up one day and complained. I said I am shooting for 17 hours, there has to be a clause in the contract. It just gets to you and makes you irritated. But all the frustration was required for the character and it must have come through.
How tough were the rape scenes?
There is a very bold scene where I am making love to my husband (Indraneil) and Pavan Malhotra comes and rapes me in the same scene. Right after the lovemaking scene, there’s a rape scene. So I was like, what am I doing? It was as gruesome as it gets. So I said I have a problem because it’s very bold. Pavan made me comfortable saying he will only do what I am comfortable with. He is a very good co-star, very experienced. We became friends and did the rape scene and he thanked me because if I wasn’t comfortable he would have never beeen able to do it. Even in a rape scene both the actors actually have to be comfortable with each other, contrary to what we see or think.
You are generally not comfortable with bold scenes...
I am not really. When I had to kiss Param (Parambrata Chattopadhyay) in 22shey Srabon, I warned him before the shot. I told him ‘don’t do anything extra’! And all I was thinking was what will my mother think? My grandmother has never done it in the movies! And my father? He will just faint! Every time I have to do a bold scene I am like dying thinking what everyone would think. I did have a making-out scene in Mirch too but it looked so bad that we reshot it. My father didn’t talk to me for three days after watching the film! My mother went and watched the film with the household staff and she said, ‘At least tell me what kind of film you’ve done because I take the house staff along!’
But in this movie my lovemaking scene is very nicely done. My brief for the rape scene was to watch Irreversible, the scene where Monica Bellucci gets raped.
When will you join your mother’s campaign in Bankura?
I’m going there on Poila Baisakh and I will even speak Bangla on the dais!
