Actress Ritabhari Chakraborty is stepping into unknown territory with her upcoming Hoichoi series Karma Korma — she is trading the much-loved ‘good girl’ image for a dark character.
“This one is grey,” she says with a laugh, quickly adding that viewers will have to decide for themselves just how dark it actually gets. Her character, Shahana, looks every bit the poised, elegant woman who wouldn’t hurt a fly — except her mind works in ways that are anything but innocent. “She’s twisted. I don’t think I like her at all. That’s what made it so exciting.”
A lot of the credit, she says, goes to director Pratim Dasgupta, with whom she is collaborating for the first time. His brief to her was disarmingly simple: imagine Gayatri Devi’s grace paired with the psyche of a psychopath. “That alone made me want to do it,” she says.
Ritabhari always admired Pratim’s clean, postcard-like aesthetic, and this role felt like the perfect entry point into his world.
The 33-year-old actress is especially excited about reuniting with Sohini Sarkar, her co-star from her earliest television days. “It felt like a reunion,” she says. “We’ve always had that affection, and working together again just reignited it.”
Their scenes, she says, will be among the highlights of the show. Ritwik Chakraborty, with whom she shares limited screen time, is someone she calls “so good you almost don’t deserve him”, and hopes to act alongside him more extensively in future.
Beyond acting, Ritabhari also opened up about her love for screenwriting. Years before Karma Korma, she wrote the short film Naked, which unexpectedly led her into Hindi cinema. “Writing gives me confidence,” she says. “I’m waiting patiently for one of my Hindi scripts to get mounted. I want to see my name on the big screen as a writer.”
She’s clear about one thing: she intends to build a long-term creative footprint, whether as writer, producer, or eventually director. “This PR, party, socialising thing — it doesn’t last,” she says. “It’s only the work that matters.”
And why must viewers watch Karma Korma? “It’s fresh. It’s interesting. It’s insane. That’s reason enough,” she says.
