(Top) Manisha the suicide bomber in Dil Se; Manisha the Bangali bou on the sets of Rituparno Ghosh?s Khela on Tuesday. Picture by Aranya Sen

The second-floor apartment of Tollywood star Prosenjit?s Ballygunge Phari residence is their home ? the address of Prosenjit the filmmaker and his ?neglected wife? Manisha Koirala in Rituparno Ghosh?s Khela.

Also featuring a child actor and Raima Sen as a costume designer, the Bengali film has a lot to do with the couple?s conflict over having a child. That sparks a rift and the two drift apart. Playing a lonely housewife isn?t anything new for Manisha (she has done that in Tum? before), but the Nepalese beauty insists it would be something different this time.

?My character in Khela is married for a long time. Her filmmaker husband gets busy with his work and she feels that he doesn?t need her anymore. So she accepts the fact and tries to move on? There is no identification with the character on a personal level, but I can understand her. A woman?s need to have her husband around. The story is very close to life. In fact, most of Ritu?s films are very close to life,? Manisha explains.

?Besides, my whole attire is different. It?s typically Bengali and I am trying to imbibe the attitude and the nakhras by observing. I am really working very hard at it. But I have left it to Ritu to guide me,? she says, looking very much at home in a taant sari with hair tied up in a bun.

So, what made Manisha say yes to the film? ?The director. Rituparno is my favourite director,? she announces with a smile, before rattling off names of his films she has seen ? Chokher Bali, Raincoat and Bariwali. She plans to see Antarmahal too, the script of which she had heard before.

?Rituparno had narrated it to me a year or two ago for some role, but the whole set-up had changed after that,? adds Manisha, waiting for her director to start the shoot on Tuesday evening.

The day had been spent mostly in getting her look for the role right and also ?getting to know? the crew and co-actor Prosenjit.

Part of the preparations for becoming a Bangali bou for her first Bengali project involves watching more Bengali films. ?The language is not so difficult for me; it?s close to Nepali. So, it?s not so strange-sounding for me. But I am very nervous. I know that I have to do it correctly and I hope I don?t slip.?

Khela is among the clutch of films Manisha has taken up after a two-year sabbatical. ?I was bored. After doing some 60 films, one gets stagnated. So, I took a break, studied film-making in New York and also produced a film. I have started signing films from August,? she says.

Projects in the pipeline include Ram Gopal Varma?s Darwaza Bandh Rakhna and Shiv, Tulsi co-starring Irrfan, plus a few untitled films. Akbar Khan?s Tajmahal would be her first release in months.

?Because of multiplexes, different kinds of films are being made and there is a lot of scope for different kinds of films,? feels Manisha, having turned producer with Paisa Vasool, a film that flopped.

Direction is something Manisha wants to turn to at some point. ?I have thought of a subject and it may happen in the next two years. But I am very scared,? she laughs out loud.

The one thing the Dil Se girl is sure of is that she won?t direct and act in the same film.

And what kind of a film would she want to make? ?Well then, I straightaway start thinking of the international market. My film need not necessarily be in English, but it will be one that will go to the international film festivals,? she laughs again.

The source of such an inspiration has been 24-year-old Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf. ?I had seen her Five in the Afternoon at Cannes. After the screening the entire audience stood up and went on clapping. I want to make a film which would evoke that kind of a reaction,? smiles Manisha, eyes twinkling.

After a five-day shoot in the city, she flies back to Mumbai before returning to the Dooars for Khela?s outdoors in end-November.