Prosenjit on the sets of Rituparno Ghosh?s Khela. Picture by Aranya Sen

A peek into his Ballygunge office chamber, furnished without frills, reveals Tollywood?s leading man in the role of a businessman. Pushing aside a sheaf of papers, he answers his cell phone, organises the venue for a press conference and gives instructions to his secretary. Ideas, his TV and film production firm, is still in the teething stage and so the need for constant monitoring.

If Prosenjit?s off-screen role is taking shape as ideator-producer-presenter-director, the one on screen is metamorphosing from a star to an actor, from a box-office badshah to a seeker of fame at film festivals, from a one-man industry to an industrious man at yet another filmi frontier.

Of the eight releases he has had in 2005, only Sangram, Criminal and Raju Uncle managed to rake in comfortable returns. Box-office collections of Swapno, his last 2005 release produced by Saregama Films, aren?t up to the Prosenjit mark either.

So, where are his audiences going? Is the dual might of Jeet and Mithun Chakraborty (Juddha, case in point) stealing his thunder?

The star laughs it off. The glut of films is to blame, he reasons. ?2005 has been bad overall. It?s good business if you have 22 to 25 films a year. There were more films than that in 2005 and all released close to each other. My films, Mithun?s films and Jeet?s... Juddha worked because of the Mithun-Jeet combination and also because it was an action film...?

Prosenjit does not appear perturbed by the turn of the wheel after some 17 years at the pinnacle. ?Jeet still has a long way to go and prove himself... and people still want to see me as a romantic hero,? insists the actor with around 270 films to his credit.

At the crossroads

Through a topsy-turvy 2005, Prosenjit had changed his look at least twice for the sake of his characters ? from cropped hair to beard with long hair and back to the clean-shaven, dishevelled hair look. The more striking ? and significant ? change, though, has been in his roles, both on and off screen.

To start with, he is surprisingly unromantic in Swapno, as an all-sacrificing breadwinner without a woman to walk into the sunset with. Prosenjit doesn?t deny that the lack of ?suitable? heroines has also triggered the need for a change in characterisation.

?After Ritu (Rituparna Sengupta), there has not been any steady pairing with me. Something could have worked out had Arpita (his wife) been around? But Rachana, more or less is fine beside me, since she has been around for a long time and is experienced. Aar heroine toiri kora jabe na? And I don?t feel the vacuum any more,? he muses.

The four mainstream films currently on his platter will find Prosenjit as more than just a romantic or an action hero. ?I am trying to change my image in mainstream films. It started with Criminal and then there was Swapno... I will give myself three to four years more. And then I will withdraw before the audience rejects me,? he says.

After a pause, he adds: ?I am not saying that I will retire. But I will do films that I want to do. Today I am 40 and people still want to see me as a romantic hero? I began as a romantic hero and then became an action hero as well. With a height of 5 ft 6 or 5 ft 7, you can?t even imagine being an action hero, yet I have been one. But I feel I have reached a saturation point. Now I want something else... One should always take risks, otherwise it becomes monotonous.?

With Aishwarya Rai in Chokher Bali; (below) with Locket Chatterjee in Criminal

When tomorrow comes

For Tollywood?s hero number one, the year has begun with a new agenda and a fresh set of resolutions. The first is cutting down on the number of films ? five to six mainstream projects and one or two films with Rituparno Ghosh. All this to leave himself with two months as a breather ? something he hasn?t got in the past few years ? and think differently.

?Now, I want to be recognised as an actor in the international film festivals, like Soumitra Chatterjee? I want to do two quality films a year. This will be my last challenge as an actor,? he says softly, eyes twinkling.

The hunger for quality films has been whetted by Rituparno?s Utsav and Chokher Bali and Buddhadeb Dasgupta?s Swapner Din. Khela, feels Prosenjit, will give both him and his director Rituparno a ?different identity?.

Anticipating a dearth of attractive roles in mainstream films in the not-so-distant future, Prosenjit is looking forward to new directors giving him a new lease of life on screen. ?The ones I have worked with for 25 years won?t be able to give me a new image. For that I have started keeping an eye on fresh talents,? he reveals.

And he?s all for funding the one or two that he finds promising.

That, when it happens, would be a step ahead for Ideas, too. The big dream is to turn Ideas into a big production firm. ?I want to make three to four films for the multiplexes now,? he declares.

Ideas, where he doesn?t have an official designation ? call me what you will, he says, it?s my brainchild ? has been commissioned the Robbarer Bioscope slot on Zee Bangla. A clutch of directors is making telefilms for the channel, starting with Rituparno. Next up is Rupashi Bangla, a talent hunt show to be anchored by Prosenjit himself.

And the actor is determined to make all this work because he feels he is ?a better technician than an actor?.

Not many know that Prosenjit had directed two films, Ami Shei Meye and Purushottam in the 1990s. So, the final fling with filmdom will surely be from the director?s chair.

?I want to make good mainstream films like Mani Ratnam, may be. I love the kind of films made by Asit Sen and Tapan Sinha. And I am a big fan of Guru Dutt,? he smiles, a wistful look in his eyes.