Ritabhari Chakraborty at home with her collection of shoes

What happens when a student of Class XI in the science stream gets offered the lead role in a mega serial? Ritabhari Chakraborty tried to shake it off but was persuaded into signing on. “I was told the shoot would happen around my school schedule. “My ambition was to be a doctor. I studied between shots, missing out on industry gossip in the make-up room,” recalls the former student of Hariyana Vidya Mandir. “But there was no way I could practise mathematics on the sets.” The inevitable happened. “After four months I decided to switch to arts.”

Ritabhari, now a third year student of history in Jadavpur University, has no regrets. Because the TV-watching mass of Bengal know her as Lolita of the hit Star Jalsha serial Ogo Bodhu Sundari.

Yet the decision had been a tough one for Ritabhari. Her maternal grandfather was the vice-principal of Scottish Church College, her aunt taught in Dum Dum High School and her grandmother in South Point. Then again, her parents worked in the film industry, her mother being the National Award-winning director Satarupa Sanyal. “I am used to the studio floor from my childhood,” she smiles. But after her parents separated when she was barely four, she was brought up largely in her grandparents’ place in Baguiati. “The atmosphere there was very school-like,” the 21-year-old recalls.

Though little Ritabhari was quite a tomboy and got scolded a lot, on the day of the result she always came home smiling. “I studied round the year and was a ranker.”

Once she started acting on TV, she heard whispers of her peers quitting studies, unable to take the pressure. Manali of Bou Katha Kao, Ronita of Dhonyi Meye (now in Ishti Kutum), Sampurna of Tarey Ami Chokhey Dekhini all dropped out after, or in some cases, before crossing the bounds of school. “I respect their decision. After all, we were earning as much as an engineer would at the start of his career and had made our mark. When we went for shows in the districts, thousands turned up to see us. People on the sets kept asking why I was bothering to go for higher studies. But for me, graduation was a matter of self-respect.”

After all, she had got a lofty 93.5 per cent in her Class XII Board examinations, getting 95 in history and 97 in Bengali, CBSE top scores. “By then, the serial was running for two years. I was felicitated by the Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality. MLA Sujit Bose came home with chocolates. My result was flashed on TV news. Everyone was asking what I was planning to graduate in. And when I stood in the top three in the Presidency College entrance test for history, a cake was cut at home in celebration, it mattered so much to my family.” Finally, the relaxed attendance criterion and the expansive campus tilted the scales in favour of JU.

She did have to give up several plum projects because of university but one role she could not say no to was of Charulata in Nashtanir. “We staged the play in Hyderabad one evening. Early next morning I flew back to JU to appear for an internal test.”

More than the accolades from the industry, she treasures praise from literary personalities. “Once Nabaneeta Dev Sen told me that she was upset that my character Lolita had got cancer. I was stunned that she followed the serial. Poet Joy Goswami had remarked that he saw something more in me than a regular actress.”

In between classes, she has completed shooting her mother’s film Once Upon A Time in Kolkata, which is slated for a January release. And before her finals in April, she will shoot for a film opposite Samadarshi Dutta alongside Mamata Shankar, Dipankar Dey and Saumitra Chatterjee. “That will be a start-to-finish schedule in February. But no serials for me till I graduate.”

Sudeshna Banerjee