Ananya receives the National Award from President Pratibha Patil in Delhi

Has life changed after the Best Actress National Award for Abohoman?

No, life hasn’t changed much. I am reading some scripts but haven’t finalised anything…. People I’ve worked with are very happy; they were always my friends and are still my friends. They love me more because I have made them proud. But I am not sure about the people I haven’t worked with!

Who did you meet at the award ceremony?

Lots of people. I met Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan of course, Mr Farooq Sheikh, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Ramesh Sippy, Rajkumar Hirani, Shyam Benegal and Arundhati Nag, who got the best Supporting Actress award for Paa. And the good thing was they came up to me on their own to talk. M.S. Sathyu was on the central jury panel and this year three of my films —Dwando, Angshumaner Chhobi and Abohoman— had gone for the National Awards. I had a cameo in Angshumaner Chhobi. It was nice… first year, three films and the National Award!

Rajkumar Hirani and Mr Mehra asked for the DVDs of my films. I could give only Abohoman to Mr Mehra and he made me sign it! I was a little nervous and all dressed up... My friend Radhika (Singhi, designer) had given me a beautiful sari and accessories to wear.

Picture by Pabitra Das; make-up: Nabin; costume: Radhika Singhi

Post-Abohoman, what kind of offers are you getting?

Mostly commercial films. But if I do one, it has to be really good. I think the commercial films of Tollywood are changing. They have space for heroines who do a lot more than just dance… though I don’t mind dancing, and then films are being made on a larger scale, there’s lot of glamour and gloss. There’s scope for performance. I might experiment with a film where I am just needed to dance, provided it’s a big banner film.

You’ve worked with Rituparno Ghosh, Aparna Sen, Suman Ghosh.... Who’s your favourite?

I’ve just done a cameo in Iti Mrinalini for Rinadi (Aparna). But she was extremely good and we became very good friends while working on the film. We are still in touch. It’s a different comfort level with her. With Suman (Dwando) too, I shared the same rapport as with Rinadi. But I was really scared of Rituda while doing Abohoman. Now I am not that scared of him.

What made you so scared of Rituparno?

See, Rituda was friendly but I was in awe of him. There might have been reasons too. Abohoman was my first big break… my first big role and a big director, so I was always very worked up. The thought that I had to do my best was always on my mind. I always felt this was the time to prove myself. This was the time I had been waiting for all my life.

Are you happy being labelled an art film actress?

I don’t care as long as people like my work. Some people call me an arty actress. It’s not that I have got 100 film offers in my bag and I can be choosy. I prefer to do slightly cerebral films but I would also love to see myself in commercial films. I like the glam and gloss.

Subarnalata on Zee Bangla has become popular. How long do you plan to continue with the serial?

I will continue doing Subarnalata as long as the channel wants to air it. It’s a very popular serial and I am enjoying working in it. After pack-up, I wait for the next day’s shoot, every day.

Any plans to cut down on TV and focus on films?

I am just doing one TV project and I don’t want to cut down and focus on films. If there’s a film where my role is good and it needs a good amount of time, I just adjust my dates with my TV projects. I was doing TV when I was shooting for Abohoman. So I took some time off, finished the film and went back to TV. There’s a lot of good work on TV; there are women-centric roles while films are still very male-dominated, mainly the mainstream films. TV and films are my only source of income and though I do one project on TV at a time, I take a lot of money!

Your future plans:

I love dance and I think I will have my dance school by next year. I work only five days a week and so I can teach dance over the weekends. I want to teach Indian classical, western and folk.... I have trained under Mamata Shankar for four years and learnt kathak for a year under Shyamal Maharaj.

Actors you admire:

Uttam Kumar, Richard Gere, Robert Redford, Tabu, Smita Patel, Shabana Azmi, Sabitri Chatterjee, Churni Ganguly, Debasree Roy, Chandreyee Ghosh, Rupanjana Mitra… the list goes on!