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| “This is my favourite corner. It’s an old almirah turned into a bar counter. This is where I enjoy my single malts in the evening!” says Saswata, at his Golf Green home. Picture: Anindya Shankar Ray |
His fifth-floor balcony at Golf Green, which opens out to a view of the city and the blue sky, is Saswata Chatterjee’s favourite spot in his house. The actor with a comic bone tells t2 why he loves playing baddies and doesn’t need sleeping pills for a good night’s sleep...
Despite being in the show business, you maintain a pretty simple lifestyle...
I lead a simple lifestyle but that doesn’t mean I am a foolish simpleton! I can do something so drastic, which could be scary! If you don’t do anything bad in life, then that’s no life at all.
And you do a lot of bad as Mosh in Hercules...
When Ranada (Abhijit Guha, co-director of Hercules, which hits screens on August 29) first told me about the character, I said if his name is Mosh then there has to be the characteristics of a mosh (buffalo) in him! So we decided that Mosh should always chew gum and only his lower jaw would move. Very interesting character. Mosh is not really a villain, he has a comic streak in him. But he can be sweet as well as ruthless. And he is a villain. Now, who’s a villain? Someone who goes against the interests of the hero. If you see the film from Mosh’s point of view, then maybe he’s the hero and Parambrata (Chattopadhyay) the villain!
You don’t mind playing a baddie?
I had played a bad man in Manushi, a telefilm directed by Chandan Sen. I also played a goonda in Namte Namte. After watching the last scene of the film, my wife (Mahua) told me that she wanted to slap me! See, a villain takes the story forward. If everything centres around nice people, then there will be no twists and turns. Hercules is about Haru (Parambrata), who is underconfident and scared and how he becomes Hercules is what the film explores. When Haru becomes Hercules, Mosh changes his attitude and even touches his feet! He is a mishti villain. I had great fun playing Mosh. I love and enjoy playing characters with a comic streak. Who wouldn’t, tell me? If you can laugh a little, what else do you need in life?
My DVD collection has all films from the black-and-white era... Tulsi Chakraborty, Rabi Ghosh, Anup Kumar, Bhanu Bandopadhyay and Jahar Roy films. I have learned acting from them. That famous dialogue “Mashima malpua khamu” (Sharey Chuattar)... the timing is so perfect that even if you watch it a 100 times, you will laugh. Rabijethu’s comic timing was unmatched. The first condition for comedy is that if you laugh at your own jokes, others won’t laugh. You have to say something funny very seriously.
You do a lot of comedy in real life too, cracking jokes at parties…
Yes, I love doing that. It comes naturally to me.
Since you play a villain on and off, is there a dark side to you that we aren’t aware of?
Not many know that I am very stubborn.
After almost 70 films, you still accept bit roles. The length of a role doesn’t matter to you, does it?
No. But sometimes I do wish that I had a bigger role. But if I’m not offered that for some reason, I try and do a role that people won’t forget after stepping out of the hall. I had only three-four scenes in The Bong Connection but people still remember my role. Kahaani, for instance (Bob Biswas).
But I have a regret. I had an extraordinary scene with Vidya (Balan, in Kahaani) which was chopped! Anyway, a character, whether big or small, should make an impact. Take Chhadmabeshi for instance, where Bankim Ghosh had just one scene where he says, ‘Pundu, gari udhar kyun khara kiya?’ I still remember that dialogue. What a scene!
How do you make out, at the script reading stage, that a two-scene role will make an impact?
When I listen to a script, I try and visualise the character. That’s how I know if a character will click or not.
After Bob Biswas your demand shot up, but don’t you think you’ve disappointed people with your choice of films?
Like? What were my choices? See, firstly I don’t have too many options to choose from.
But you let go of two Bollywood films for Banku Babu which was a complete washout! Don’t you regret it?
No. Because I was offered a role in Heroine and it wasn’t a box-office success either. Which film will run and which won’t, nobody knows. Uttam Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan’s films have failed too.
But you don’t think your choice of films could have been better?
I accepted those films that I thought were the best at that time. If you have to choose two from 100 saris lying in front of you, won’t you get confused?
Which means you get loads of offers a year...
I do get a few and I often reject offers. It’s not that I say yes to all. But see it’s a small industry and most of the producer-directors are friends and it’s difficult to say no. I don’t have a huge market that I will do just two films a year and survive for another five years. I have to work. As an actor if I sit at home, amar cholbe na. While shooting Nobel Chor, I was sitting with Mithunda (Chakraborty) in his suite at HHI. He took out a diary and every page of it was full. I asked him, ‘Mithunda, you still need so much money?’ He said: ‘Who told you I work for money? If I don’t work, I will die. I can’t sit idle. Till the time you are getting offers, work, respect your work and don’t think of the result.’
How have you managed to stay insulated from cellphones and the social media?
Leave me out of it.... I don’t understand all this. Maybe because I am so far away from all these, I still have some me-time to sit in the veranda and think and write, which people can’t afford to. I give a lot of time to myself, I talk to myself. Nowadays when four-five people are seated side by side, they don’t talk to each other. They fiddle with their phones. The SMS language lacks a certain depth. People have forgotten to write letters.... I am not very ambitious and I live a far better life than many others in this profession. I don’t have to depend on sleeping pills at night.
