Rosa Catalano, in town to scout for work, strikes a pose for Metro at the office of Shree Venkatesh Films on Tuesday afternoon. Picture by Aranya Sen

She had come to Calcutta seven summers ago but those were happier times. She was then one half of what, in hindsight, can be called Saifosa.

Rosa Catalano, Saif Ali Khan’s Italian ‘ex’, is back in town, not to burn the dance floor with Chhote Nawab but to knock on the doors of Tollywood directors for work.

“I don’t want to talk about Saif now because both of us have moved on in life,” Rosa told Metro. He to Kareena and she to Tollywood.

“I believe that cinema has no barrier and though I’m struggling in Bollywood, I want to explore other industries,” Rosa said after meeting film-makers Raj Challenge Chakraborty and Suman Chaturanga Mukhopadhyay.

“Rosa called me from Mumbai a couple of days back. She is interested in doing an item number in my film Dui Prithibi (starring Dev, Jeet and Koel Mullick). I played the song in my studio on Tuesday and she showed me a few videos of her dancing to Bollywood tracks. I haven’t decided yet but we will definitely work together,” said Raj.

Rosa, who only has a cameo in Chintuji and an item number in Shaurya to show in Bollywood, sounded buoyant after the meeting. “I have heard so much about Raj from my friend Suchismita (Dasgupta, costume designer) that I was really keen on working with him and I don’t even mind doing an item number in his film.”

Rosa and Saif burn the Shisha floor in 2004

Rosa hit it off with Mukhopadhyay too. “Rosa is keen to work in Bengali films. I have a script ready, K for Krishnendu, where I can use her because it demands a foreigner,” he said.

Next on Rosa’s Tolly to-meet list is Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and she will meet the maker of Antaheen in Mumbai on Thursday.

In Calcutta, Rosa will mix business with pleasure, gorging on “typical Bengali food” and hitting a nightclub “for sure”. In 2004, Rosa in a sari had rocked Shisha with Saif.

“Calcutta is the first city I had visited after I landed in India and I am a bit nostalgic…. I have heard that Bengalis are very talented and it would be nice if I can be a part of Tollywood,” said Rosa, who hasn’t watched a Bengali film yet.