Blunt at times and bitchy at others, the t2 adda with June-Payel Sarkar-Debleena Dutt, the three ladies in Arindam Sil’s Ebar Shabor, was full of ROFL moments. Over cappuccino, French fries and grilled sandwiches at The Oberoi Grand poolside, it was a chilly winter evening well spent.

The ladies in Ebar Shabor are said to be mysterious...
Payel: I’m too innocent to be true!
June: We are all mysterious. As women we are mysterious enough and Arindam has made us even more mysterious in Ebar Shabor. Yes, actually we are all suspects and in any detective story the suspects are mysterious. And the way the characters are woven into the movie, they will seem a bit mysterious and in many ways also similar to each other. 
Debleena: We all are very mysterious, till the end. All of us are suspects. I am very happy that we are looking mysterious and intriguing in the film.  

How mysterious are you in real life?
Debleena: I am very!
June: I think every woman is, that’s the beauty of a woman, she will always be a mystery to her man. Women are complicated by nature, mainly because we are emotionally driven. That’s what makes us different from a man. Sometimes your partner, friends, father, brother are unable to gauge what you actually are. So I think we are all mysterious... even you are! (Laughs) We don’t reveal much. 
Payel: When does a person become mysterious? When you don’t understand her. There are a lot of emotions within a woman and for any man it’s really difficult to understand all the emotions. 
June: Exactly. I feel that even in a mother-son relationship the son can never ever tell what the mother actually feels for him. I really feel sorry for the men! (Laughs)
Debleena: I totally agree with June. In Titanic there was a dialogue: ‘A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets’. I totally love the dialogue. 

Which actress in Tollywood is mysterious?
Debleena: Actresses are mysterious.
June: Why are you getting us into trouble? (Laughs) I find Rituparna (Sengupta) pretty mysterious! 
Debleena: I find Swastika Mukherjee (cast member of Ebar Shabor) very mysterious.
June: Ritu is mysterious because she is in this industry for so long but nobody knows what she really is — is she very diplomatic or is she just innocent or is she extremely clever? I don’t think Ritu has too many friends in the industry. At least I don’t see her mingling with anyone. So that’s why her life is a little mysterious for me because I just can’t keep a tab on Ritu. I never call her. I always message her because I really don’t know where she is! In Singapore, America, Mandarmani or in Bombay! She can be in Singapore today and the next day she can be in Bombay!  
Debleena: Swastika is mysterious because she is so inhibitionless even off-screen. She carries herself without giving a damn. That’s a mystery to me. How does she manage to carry herself so well at all times? 
Payel: I found Suchitra Sen very mysterious.

The women in Ebar Shabor are adulterous too... 
June: See, every character in Ebar Shabor is absolutely grey including Shabor (Saswata Chatterjee). My character Julekha is a bitch, very catty!
Debleena: Yes, I am adulterous. I am Rahul’s live-in partner. I am a single mother, I have a daughter...
Payel: Purotai adultery! 
June: Debleena plays the modern Bengali girl in the metro who lives life on her terms. 
Payel: See, for me if you love somebody you want to be with that person all the time... that is not adultery. But in Ebar Shabor the circumstances are adulterous. 
June: Every women in Ebar Shabor has a very strong sensuality, overpowering sexuality, and they are very aggressive. 
Payel: My character is very vulnerable, docile and innocent but she knows what she wants. 
June: My character is pretty ambitious in many ways. 
When you play characters with overpowering sexuality, do you relate to the role?  
June: You can’t. How? Unless you are working in an autobiographical film, you cannot relate to any character.
Debleena: I don’t identify with my character Khonika at all. That’s why I enjoyed playing her all the more. I would love to be like Khonika. I love her couldn’t-care-less attitude.
Payel: Whenever we play a character there are a few similarities and dissimilarities. My character Joyeeta is timid and sweet, her family members are very protective about her. 
So I kind of identified to some extent.
June: Ebar Shabor is very adult, not erotically adult but it’s for adults. Feluda and Kakababu are youth-oriented detective stories where there’s no place for women. But Ebar Shabor has a very adult theme. It’s like Byomkesh in many ways. All the seven sins are there. All women have the power to entice men and I think that’s why god created us, to destroy men!
Payel: Junedi is in a violent mood today!

When there are so many actresses in a film, is there competition to outdo one another?
June: Yes, we were fighting all the time!
Payel: Arindamda had a tough time with us!
Debleena: We were destroying each other’s make-up!
June: We were pleading with Arindam for more screen time! No, nothing of that sort.
Payel: Each one of us had a lot to do. 
Debleena: We did a lot of bitching about others on the sets!
June: Besides, I had these huge sharks around me, people like Apu (Saswata Chatterjee) who is a tough contender. He is so competitive by nature that I used to be on my toes in the scenes with him!    

Kushali Nag
Which actress in Tollywood do you find mysterious and why? Tell t2@abp.in