An address is the first introduction to a person after the name. You can guess the kind of character who lives at an address like 36 Chowringhee Lane,? says Aparna Sen, on the brink of directing her third film in English.

So, if 36 Chowringhee Lane peeped into the cobweb world of a lonely, ageing Anglo-Indian woman, 15 Park Avenue will explore the realms of a schizophrenia patient and her relationship with an older half sister.

?I know I will be asked why I have kept 15 Park Avenue as the title. But I guess people will understand once they see the film. It?s an address which becomes a metaphor for search,? Sen adds, after a brief pause.

Barely a week before she starts shooting in Bhutan, Sen is unwilling to divulge anything more about her seventh feature film. But the film-maker is visibly upbeat about the motley cast that she has managed to assemble.

The story of two sisters stars some seldom-seen faces like Waheeda Rehman and Dhritiman Chatterjee, apart from Shabana Azmi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rahul Bose, Kanwaljit Singh and Shefali Shah (of Monsoon Wedding fame). There?s also a cameo by Soumitra Chatterjee, one of Sen?s ?favourite actors? along with Waheeda.

In 15 Park Avenue, Sen intends to train her camera on the world inhabited by the mentally challenged who, she feels, have been marginalised in mainstream cinema.

?They have almost become invisible. So, I was overjoyed when a commercial film, Black, was based on a challenged person. After Paromitar Ekdin, I had decided that I would have at least one challenged character in my films,? adds Sen.

?The story of 15 Park Avenue had been with me for a long time. It was growing inside me. I want to explore the different realities of a schizophrenic world,? says the film-maker, who took a trip to her parents? home in Santiniketan and wrote the script in five days flat. ?Apart from the two women, there are three nice men in the film.?

Konkona, who plays the schizophrenic younger sibling Mithi, is currently grooming herself through a series of rehearsals and workshops coordinated by Sohag Sen.

?I have also visited some psychiatrists and family members of schizophrenia patients,? says Konkona.

?It?s a very well thought out and well written script. And I am very excited about working with Shabana Azmi. I had acted with her in Picnic and it was she who kept insisting that I become an actor,? adds the star of Page 3.

Citing the reason behind sticking to English as the medium, director Sen says she is dissatisfied as far as exhibition and distribution of Bengali films are concerned.

?There are no major outlets for regional films. So I chose a language that is spoken by a large section of people in the country. And I like to have my important characters from different places like Assam or Tamil Nadu, unlike mainstream Hindi films which only have Hindu north Indian males in the lead.?

15 Park Avenue will be produced by Bipin Vohra of SPS Telefilms at an approximate cost of Rs 2.5 crore.

For the second shoot schedule starting end-February, Sen will camp at one of the Tollygunge studios with her star cast.