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| Roopa Ganguly on the balcony of her Golf Garden flat. Pictures: Rashbehari Das |
On a Tuesday morning Roopa Ganguly has a hundred things to do. From attending the funeral of her brother-in-law to rushing to a cousin’s wedding and taking flowers to her ex-husband to wish him ‘happy birthday’. “Look at life’s irony. While my (ex-) husband will celebrate his birthday, we will mourn the untimely death of my brother-in-law,” says Roopa, sitting in front of the mirror in her make-up room littered with lipsticks, powder, combs and jewellery. “I hate doing make-up. I don’t look good anymore!” she rues, before settling down for an hour-long chat with t2...
In your last t2 interview, you had said that not too many good roles come your way and as an actor all you can do is wait. What is a good role to you?
One like Nayanchapa (Nayanchapar Dinratri, Sekhar Das’s November 28 release where she plays a domestic help). Unfortunately, the budget of Nayanchapar Dinratri is one fifth of a regular Bengali film.
Did you have to let go of your remuneration?
(Laughs) No. I was given a bit!
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| Roopa and Chandreyee in Nayanchapar Dinratri |
You’ve been there, done that. Why do you agree to such compromises?
Because Nayanchapa is my dream role. I wanted to play a domestic help all my life…. Because I wanted to break my image. People always told me that nothing would match my face, my structure other than roles of sophisticated, educated women. I felt it was an insult to me. As an actor I want to play all kinds of roles. I had asked for three months to prepare for Nayanchapar Dinratri, so that I could lose a lot of weight. But they couldn’t give me that time. Despite so many constraints, I gave my heart and soul to the character. I am tired of playing the rich woman in a backless, sleeveless blouse with straightened hair! Anjan (Dutt) always gives me those roles. (Smiles)
That I have been able to break my image in Nayanchapar Dinratri gives me immense pleasure. I really worked hard. I got a slip disc, very strenuous role… I had to run all the time with a child on my lap. We would shoot for 15 hours at a stretch....
Coming back to your question, waiting is a part of an artiste’s life. Waiting is always a part of people involved in the film industry. Be it on the floor, in the make-up room or at home. All my life I have waited for a good role. In fact I quit working several times for the lack of good work... I had taken at least four big breaks at the peak of my career. I took a break last year too for Akash (son); he was appearing for his board exam. I had to let go of eight films for that. How could I when he was preparing? Sometimes I get very good offers but with a lot of skin show. Recently I got an offer from south India but there were dare-bare scenes in it. How can I do those? I don’t like baring…. So I wait and I do other things like social work, I sing...
What kind of roles do you wait for nowadays?
Maybe an Aandhi or Shabana Azmi’s role in Mandi. Or a mentally challenged woman. I have never done it…
Films apart, is there anything you wait for in your personal life?
I have a dream... very weird. I want to have a huge studio apartment on the top floor of a multistoreyed building. The rooms won’t be divided by walls. The flat will have French windows from where I can look up to the sky.... My other dream is building a mud house. I have a house in Rajpur, there’s an empty plot beside it where I want my mud house! Dreaming apart, I do a lot of other work. I paint people’s houses.... I have painted some of my friends’ flats. I have always wanted to be an architect. I was preparing for the joint entrance exams when suddenly Jethu passed away and there was a mess. Recently I painted Bubul’s (Dhrubo, ex-husband) flat....
These apart, I don’t have too many dreams. I don’t think of the future too much. I am not very practical, I am a very emotional woman. My heart rules my life, not the mind. I don’t crave anything apart from buying a really good car. I am not greedy for anything in life. I have been wanting to buy a Samsung phone and for that I planned for a year before finally buying it recently (Roopa uses two Blackberry phones and a Samsung S5). Earlier I would splurge… I have become slightly miserly with age and monetary constraints. The kind of money that I used to get in Bombay I don’t get anymore. But I don’t want to go back to Bombay because I don’t want to make compromises, like coming back to an empty flat. And the bai in Bombay would cook dhyanrosh bhaja every day which was just inedible!
You sound a little crazy! You dream of a mud house and a plush flat at the same time…
Do you know of any artiste who isn’t crazy? Maybe because I am crazy I would manage to attend all three functions today — a funeral, a wedding and Bubul’s birthday…
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A junk jewellery addict, Roopa has collected chunky neckpieces, earrings, wristbands, rings and nose pins from Bombay and Delhi. “In Calcutta I shop from Chamba Lama. Some of the pieces in my box are dirt cheap, some are very expensive. I used to wear them a lot earlier, but now I feel they don’t suit me anymore,” she says |
You keep in touch with your ex-husband?
Five times a day. I have finished painting Bubul’s new flat and now I am doing up the flat where we used to live, where Akash was born. I decide which clothes of Bubul and Akash should go to the laundry, which vegetables should be cooked. I look after everything... it’s just that I live in a separate flat in the same neighbourhood. We are dear friends.
Is that why you never settled down with anyone else?
That’s one reason. The other reason is... it’s very stupid... but I believe that a child cannot have two mums and two dads. If I had a separation when Akash was very young, then probably I could have. Also, I don’t have the energy to invest in another relationship.
What do you enjoy doing with Akash the most?
We watch TV together. He is hooked on to Homeland!
You also do a lot of gardening…
I really enjoy doing that. Come... let me show you my little garden! I have a gourd tree too and there are two gourds hanging. There are various other plants. And I have all sorts of birds chirping on my balcony early morning.
You are rarely seen at film parties. Are you becoming a recluse?
Actually I don’t like doing make-up and going to parties and I can’t go anywhere without make-up because I get clicked everywhere.
You also don’t attend film premieres. Do you watch current Bengali films?
Yes, I buy DVDs and watch.
The box-office results of Bengali films aren’t very encouraging. What do you think is wrong?
The distribution sector has to improve. Some films are doing well. But the recent trend of running three films in a single screen theatre is not a good idea.
Looking back, are you happy with the choices you have made in your professional life?
I am satisfied. I have done whatever I could do. As an artiste I have some limitations, like I can’t do anything illogical. Maybe that’s a disadvantage. An artiste should be able to do something illogical convincingly on screen. But I can’t. When we were young, the kind of films that were made… very unfortunate. Now people laugh at those films but I used to laugh at those even back then. I was ahead of the times.
And are you happy with the choices you made in your personal life?
Very much. But I may not want to be an actress in my next birth. I would rather be an engineer or a doctor, something to serve mankind. But I have no grievances or regrets.
