SWASTIKA MUKHERJEE

What do you fear the most about auditioning?

I am always under too much pressure during an audition. I start feeling uneasy and uncomfortable as soon as I walk into the audition room. Despite that, I have sat for a lot of auditions at the beginning of my career. I think it’s the pressure to give your 100 per cent in front of unknown people that makes you so nervous.

One fun moment: Once I forgot my lines and told the director, ‘Ek minute time deben?’ and everyone started laughing!

One embarrassing moment: I never had any. But I guess at times I feel embarrassed myself because I measure too many things during an audition and try to be too precise.

RITUPARNA SENGUPTA

What do you fear the most about auditioning?

When I was a child, I went for an audition for a school play. I failed miserably and since then I developed an audition phobia. I am very nervous and apprehensive. Ask me to give a take, I’m okay. But auditions, I run away!

One fun moment: My first and last audition was for Cinemawalla, a TV series on ABP TV. I had just done Swet Patharer Thala and Prabhatda (Roy) referred me to Dulal Lahiri (director) for a role in the TV series. I was so nervous, I got panicky and I had a very funny expression on my face. I still laugh about it!

One embarrassing moment: I was made to scream during a dialogue delivery in the same audition, and earlier I had a shrill voice. Dulalda walked up to me and said, ‘Baba! Ki bachchader moton gola.’ My pitch was very high and I had no idea about voice modulation.

RAIMA SEN

What do you fear the most about auditioning?

I fear rejection. I always avoid auditions, it gives me goosebumps. I just can’t think of myself as someone who can give an audition!

One fun moment: I had somehow managed to go for an audition, but because I was so nervous I avoided going inside the room and doing the audition. So I promised the director that I would come back the next day but I never went!

One embarrassing moment: Another time I was so nervous that I kept on fumbling.

USHASIE

What do you fear the most about auditioning?

It reminds me of my maths exam during Madhyamik! The year I sat for my board exams, the questions were very difficult and for half-an-hour everyone had a blank look on their faces. Before every auditioning, I get the same feeling. I am so tense and I have butterflies in my stomach.

One fun moment: There was one time when I got a nervous attack and forgot my lines and repeated the same lines at least five times!

One embarrassing moment: This was during my first ever audition, years ago for a TV serial. I went very decked up, wore very loud make-up and a wig! When I walked in, the director took a look at me and said, ‘Remove every inch of make-up from your face. And please take off that wig!’ I was so embarrassed.

PARNO MITTRA

What do you fear the most about auditioning?

There’s an exam-like fear regarding auditions. Though I have sat for a lot of auditions, both in Bombay and Calcutta in the early stage of my career, I still feel a little nervous. I mean it’s like an exam!

One fun moment: I had gone for an audition for a south Indian film once and I couldn’t read a single line from the script! So they told me to enact a sad woman’s part. I did that without talking, that was really funny.

One embarrassing moment: A couple of years back, I was approached to audition for a fairness cosmetic brand. I thought that was really embarrassing because I am dusky.

SHAHEB BHATTACHERJEE

What do you fear the most about auditioning?

My first ever audition was for Aparna Sen’s Iti Mrinalini. I was nervous and on top of that she gave me a book of poems and asked me to read out loudly. I freaked out. I knew I would fail the audition if I started reading. So I said, ‘Rinadi, why don’t you read it first and then I will read it.’ She agreed and thank god, I almost memorised the poem while she was reading it and I passed. I was very nervous that day.

One fun moment: Recently there was an audition in Calcutta for a Bollywood film. And they wanted a pair for the audition, could be boy-boy or boy-girl. So my best friend Samadarshi and I decided to go for it. The evening before, we practised like hell. Now Samadarshi has acted in a Rituparno Ghosh film, so obviously we underplayed the scene. The director walked up to us and said, ‘Yeh acting nahin chalega. I am making a masala film, so make it loud.’ After that Sam and I did the worst acting of our lives! Thank god, nobody will ever see it!

One embarrassing moment: It was quite sometime back when I had gone for an audition in Bombay. The audition was being held in front of the other aspiring actors, and not in a separate room. So they gave me a script and I started performing. After a while, the assistant director came up to me and said: ‘Bhai, Shah Rukh Khan nahin chahiye!’ I was so embarrassed. He said it in front of everyone and they all started laughing! I don’t know if I was acting like SRK. Maybe subconsciously I was!

RUDRANIL GHOSH

What do you fear the most about auditioning?

I have auditioned only twice in my entire career. I don’t really fear auditioning, but the wait right before an audition makes me very tense. I always feel that I would forget my dialogues!

One fun moment: I find auditions funny because I have noticed people who pretend to be very confident before entering the audition room come out with their heads down. Now that I take auditions (Rudranil has just wrapped up his directorial debut Shunyo), I have noticed an attitude among newcomers which makes me feel that they have an air of overconfidence. I find that very funny.

One embarrassing moment: I had gone for an audition for a Hindi film long ago, and while I was performing, the casting director repeatedly took calls on his phone. I overheard his phone chats and realised they weren’t very important. I felt very embarrassed because he was disrespecting an artiste.

Tanusree

What do you fear the most about auditioning?

The feeling is exactly like before stepping into an exam hall. You are also apprehensive about what kind of script you will be given and what questions you will be asked.

One fun moment: I was asked to enact a scene with a guy, and instead of saying my dialogues I said his!

One embarrassing moment: I acted so badly that I was told on the face that I was a bad actor! But this was in the beginning of my career.

As told to Kushali Nag
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