The Japanese wife’s Sunderbans jaunt is over. Tokyo-based Chigusa Takaku braved the scorching sun in the mangrove forests for three weeks to shoot for Aparna Sen’s The Japanese Wife. “Though shooting was fun, the heat in the Sunderbans was unbearable at times. It was worse because of my shaved head,” laughed Chigusa on Thursday, standing pretty in front of a photograph of her former self taken during the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan this March. The actress, who studied oil painting at Tokyo University, plays Rahul Bose’s long-distance wife in her Indian debut. Picture by Amit Datta