 Hello. Hello. Hello. Can you hear us? Hi. Yes. Hi. Hello. Well, I want to thank you for talking to us. We really appreciate it. We've seen a few of your few of your things, but we just watched Patalok. Okay. And we thought you were fantastic in that. So obviously we'll be talking more about that. Rick is very attached to Bengal. So he'll also have questions for you about that. So I want to thank you for the talk. So how are you attached to Bengal? How are you? The love of my life lives in Calcutta. She's Bengali. Yes. Her name is Andrani Mukherjee. And I've been to Calcutta now several times because she's there. And she specifically wanted me to tell you that she's really excited that I'm talking to you. And she very well knows who you are and loves you. Really conveying my love and regards to her. I mean, it's really exciting to know that a part of you stays in my hometown. Yes, absolutely. My heart is there. Well, on starting with that, what do you what do you think the biggest differences are between since you've done both industries, the Bengali industry and I guess the Hindi industry, Bollywood? Yes. So I think this is one question that people tend to ask me because I'm working and shuttling between two industries. I don't really think there is too much of a difference other than maybe the work culture on a very basic level. I mean, it's the format is same. I would just say that people have this notion that Bollywood is always about more budget, more money. But in reality, I think that's a very cliched idea we have in our head regarding Bollywood. And independent films also happen in Bollywood, but they just don't fall into the quote unquote Bollywood criteria and the way people look at Bollywood because Bollywood seems like just the biggies and big films and big money and big schedule. But very interesting smaller films are also happening now. I am perpetually confused as to call them Hindi films or Hindi films or Bollywood films because the moment you go to Bombay to do anything, people think you're doing Bollywood. But they also don't want to include the smaller films as a part of Bollywood. So it's a very confusing situation. So I think when I was working extensively in Kolkata, it has been almost 20 years that I am working film industry. So people all think, oh, you're going to Bombay, a lot of money, big films. But I have done very interesting smaller films also. So I just think the difference between Bengal and Bombay, I don't want to use the word Bollywood. But the only difference I think is in Bombay, actors are given more respect. It's not about the money and it's not about the budget. They just take a lot of care of the actors, small actors, big actors, junior artists, who people will not even notice them, they may be standing in a crowd. But if somebody is pulling a chair for me, I have seen people pulling a chair for them as well, the people who were standing in the crowd. So that I think is a very, very big difference because they really take care of the actors. And because I personally feel, and I mean, you can just disagree with me if you think my feelings are not right, that, you know, if you have a fantastic script, you have a fantastic, you know, DOP and fantastic locations and superlative budget, if your actors are failing, your film will fail. Oh, 100%. We agree. Because nobody is going to come out of a movie hall saying that the actors were pathetic, but we really like the scenery. And we really like the camera work. But on the contrary, many a times we have heard that, you know, the script was weak, but we were blown by the performance. Yes. So at the end of the day, your actors are the heart and soul of your film. And it's very important that they are taken care of. And, you know, nobody is asking that, you know, we'll reach the Saturday at eight o'clock in the morning and we need a salmon buffet. Right. Just need some exotic drink to quench our thirst. The need is very basic. And I think Bombay, the usual attitude and eagerness in the entire unit is there to take care of the artists in whatever means and whichever way they can. You know, smaller budget films also provide that care. And bigger films, of course, bigger budget films can afford to provide that care. But that care is there, which unfortunately I really don't see happening in an industry where I have worked like really, really long. So I think that is the basic difference. But it makes a lot of difference. And there's no union, right? Like SAG in India? The Screen Actors Guild? Yeah, we have, there are federations and guilds in Bombay, which is the main guild. And then the regional industries also have their guilds and federation. So yeah, all of that is there. But you really can't call the federation or the guild. If you're not being provided a chair or a water bottle or toilet, it's just not possible. You're shooting in the hills or in a desert. You can't really get people on calls and make sure that you're taken care of. So I just feel that that basic difference is there, but it makes a, I think it's a big thing for actors. Yeah, absolutely. Now, we have a lot of questions specifically about your portrayal of Dolly that we'll get to in a second, I particularly. But first and foremost, we don't know how you got involved with Pataloka. We'd love to know how did the project come to your attention and then you get involved. So I had got a call from the casting agency from Abhishek Banerjee who has played Hathora Tyagi with the hammer. So he had called me and he had narrated me the story and provided basic script, which they were still working on. And I was in Kolkata that time and I had sent the audition tape. I asked a friend of mine, a very close friend of mine to shoot the audition tape for me. And luckily, my friend has a GSD at his house. He has an Alsatian dog and the dog is quite fond of me. I also love him very much. And so we just, when we were shooting the scene for the audition tape, we tried to keep the dog behind the doors, closed in a room, but he was restless and he was howling and he wanted to come out. So after 15-20 minutes of miserable tries to get the audition tape done without him, we failed. And so I just told my friend that, you know, let it be, just let it be in the scene and be in the tape because the scene involved involved dog and involved a friend. I was like, let him be because he's screaming and he's unhappy and kind of, you know, it's just meddling with my head and I don't want my performance to suffer because T2 is unhappy and locked up in a room. So I sent the audition tape along with the dog and then I got a call from Abhishek saying, when can I come down to Bombay because the director and the DOP, they wanted to meet and, you know, take few more, shoot a few more parts and do the look test, etc. You know, that process started. So when I got on board, I called up my friend and said that I think it has only happened for T2 and not because you shot the tape. I was very excited actually because I'm an avid dog lover. I have, I forever in my life, I think we have, we've kept dogs, we've had dogs since I was in class six. And we, barring the first dog of mine, I think rest, all of them were rescued or adopted. And the one that lives with me now is also a stray like Shabitri. You know, I just, I think I just didn't need to act. You know, it just came so naturally to me. And I had just suggested to my scriptwriter and director that just let me communicate with her in my mother tongue. Because I was just feeling that if I, the dialogues were there, the all the dialogues with the dog and the communication was written in Hindi or English. But I was just not feeling it, you know, like coming calling her, hi baby, come and eat or you know, hi baby, have your lunch, you know, I was just not feeling it. So I just, I just suggested that if I can communicate with the dog in my mother tongue, because then I would just talk to her the way I talk to my pets, you know, I just to mug up and send. And somehow I feel because I've had dogs since I was a child, they understand that language of love and care. I think it's just the tone that is important and not, not what you are talking. And I just feel that it made the shooting process easier. Because she kind of let me be with her and, you know, cuddle her and pick her up and, you know, and she was pregnant. And the dog that we shot with in Patal Lok, she was actually pregnant. So we had a lot of care. Everybody in the unit loved dogs. So which was a blessing. And people were not rushing with her. We took our time. So, you know, I could really give her that warmth and that care during the entire shooting process. And I kind of think, you know, it really, really worked. Because people have loved my bond with Shabitri. I mean, I really did not think they would love it so much. But somehow the character and I think Shabitri became more famous than everybody else in Patal. I have got the stature of the National Stray Dog Mom now. People just connect with me with that. I think it is amazing. And I loved it the most. I mean, of all the characters and of all the work I have done in my life. This getting appreciation and so much love from the audience. And every time they're taking my name, they're taking Shabitri's name as well. So it's not Dolly Mehra alone. It's Dolly and Shabitri. Me being a dog parent, I think it's an ecstatic feeling. That's fantastic. On that same, with the Patal Lok, I'm sorry if I'm saying it incorrectly, I mispronounced everything. One of our favorite parts of the, even though obviously everybody in the entire series has been fantastic, we got to talk to Jadip and Abhishek as well. But everybody in it was so fantastic. But you and Neraj, your scenes together were so powerful, especially when he came home after you found out and you were trying to basically love on him. That entire thing, we wanted to know how much of it was scripted and how much of it was improvised because it just seemed with two basically Thesbians acting, it just seemed very natural and almost like improvised. So I want to know what was behind that. So I think during the start of the scene where we see that the woman is checking out her body, seeing that her face is not really tight and very young and her breasts are sagging and she's tummy, she has a heavy butt. So the things that happens to women when they get old and also they don't, they stop taking care of their body as much as a 25 year old would do. So those bits were improvised, they were not as written in such details. We were discussing the scene and I added whatever, I felt that being a woman myself of that age and the way a woman is insecure, the first thing that comes to our mind is maybe my body is not that right and that's why my husband, my partner or my boyfriend is straying towards whoever else, somebody else because maybe I am not attractive enough anymore. So as a woman, I think that was the first thing that hit me and we were discussing and I said that I can use my body and that's the best way to show vulnerability and insecurity. So that was not scripted and then of course once Neeraj walks in, I just, the bad feeling and the ignorance kind of I think just really struck me hard because if his wife was crying so much that her face was so thin and there was water dropping from her nose and mouth and that entire shit state she was drinking also. So we see that the husband walks inside the room, he doesn't actually notice that the wife is in such a miserable state and so we kind of just went with the flow and the initial one or two take wasn't right because Neeraj was little more participating and the director was like you can't be participating even if you are kissing each other like you know very what do I say like a consumed manner but he is the one who wants to consume you and you are not an active participant. So one or two takes you know I mean it was not things were just not happening the way it was supposed to happen Neeraj participated a little more in the second take I think I was not clinging to him as much as I should have and then kind of it kind of started but I really didn't know that at what point I am going to start crying or you know all those were not really calculated in my head in so much detail. The more we went into the scene and we were shooting in the middle of the night it was very very cold in Delhi I think it was two degrees or so around that time and the entire day's exhaustion was also there and I just kept feeling miserable and more miserable and more miserable and somehow all of that just started working in my head. So one thing led to another but also just at the end of the scene where Neeraj puts me to sleep and you know he goes and sits on the side of the bed and the phone call comes and Dolly kind of in a very mumbling you know way just says this in her mother tongue that I have is that the girl who is calling you I have forgotten her name. She says that she who is calling you I have forgotten her name so I think that bit of I have forgotten her name was not there. Yeah I have only you know mumbled it like that in Bengali that what is the name of the girl I can't remember or I've forgotten the name of the girl is it the same one who is calling you because she kind of connects that she has met her during the award fun and there was this peculiar awkwardness between the husband and the girl and Dolly is not stupid I think she she just she didn't let she didn't want to dignify dignify this entire extramarital affair with a response. I think she was too proud to confront with her husband and go through that same you know walk on the same shitty track of why are you sleeping with so and so why are you saying on me the usual monotonous things that we keep seeing happening in films and we assume that the same kind of things have must be happening in real life but I feel you know people as a woman I think it's dying that we handle such situations with grace and maintain our dignity and you know embrace ourselves and try to understand that we have to feel that we are enough for ourselves and not kind of completely depend on our partners and think that our entire existence is happening because of them and how they us also I think for Dolly it was important that Neeraj's or Sanjeev Mehra's this entire not giving Dolly attention at all to kind of cope up with that and you know try to figure out a way where she did not need Sanjeev to give her attention I can only think that I am enough for myself yes yes yeah there we all these things are just going on in my in my mind that also after that seen whatever happens that how can she maintain her dignity and grace and also disassociate herself from this my husband is not giving me attention I have given my life to him I have done so much for him why is he behaving like this with me why is he treating me like trash I think that needed to stop for her and you know she needed to accept herself that she can she can be enough for herself and I think all all that mixed feelings were there in my mind and I was very angry also on Sanjeev not much and that kind of I think got us there it was a very sad scene I was very I was very miserable after we finished shooting the entire scene which happened for a very long time because of the various angles and the cuts and the retakes I was like very very exhausted when they were changing the angles and you know the light and this and that I actually didn't get up from the bed I was just I had just thrown myself on the bed and I was lying there until and unless we were ready for the next day so I actually didn't get up and go to some other room and you know have a cup of tea or coffee I was like I don't want to get out of this headspace and won't want to move my move my body from here I'll just be here and be in the space because I just don't want to switch on and off and you know flip to some other mood sure I don't want to talk to you I just wanted to be be there and Neeraj was very very supportive and he's a super co-actor so well that that scene I've actually I've watched the whole series twice actually Corbin and I we watched it together and then I actually watched it with Indrani my love in Calcutta and I was waiting for that moment to come up because for me and I'm not just saying this because you're here for me the as an actor my favorite acting moment in the show is that scene especially from the beginning point and I you already answered the question I was going to ask you about whether or not the lifting of the breasts as she looked in the mirror was scripted or you did that and and it touched on a number of things first of all I found that to be a tremendously courageous moment for you as an actor to be that transparent because I could see I said to Indrani after the scene I paused it and I said that is an actress right there who's unafraid to be completely naked in front of the world and that is what the world needs is more actors who are willing to share all of them so and it spoke to also this other thing I'd like to ask you about because our first exposure to you as an actor was in the role you played in Yumkesh Bokshi where you're the femme fatale you know sex symbol which has been a lot of your career has been the beautiful woman and I found it as did Indrani to be so empowering to watch an actress who's known for having been that kind of character totally transformed into a woman looking at herself in the mirror and how important is that for you not just personally but we have the problem here in in America with actresses who won't be respected or seen as they age they want to be kept in this 20-something sex symbol role and I found your portrayal of Dolly to obliterate those stereotypes is that is that important for you as an actor see I have tried to shape my career very differently and kind of you know reinvent myself every time I was doing a film language was not important I have also done a Marathi film last year which is streaming on Amazon Prime right now so I always thought that the moment you do a certain kind of film which clicks at the box office audience also kind of you know places you that way and you tend to get similar roles you know if people if if I have in a film if I've portrayed a very bold character and maybe you know I have kissed seven men so this next films or offers that I will get people will just fill those scripts with intimate scenes because they kind of think that okay so she is it uninhibited and she she doesn't have a problem doing intimate scenes so it's fine because we will not get three more you know actresses to do that so I have tried you know to not fall into that quota of she is a she is a you know symbol of hotness and she has to do extremely glamorous roles all the time and you know we want to see her like that so I think over the years I would say 2010 11 onwards I have played alcoholic for one Bengali film I had actually shaved my head and yeah I shaved my head I actually didn't wax my body for almost two months because I just wanted to wanted the hair to be there because if I am a woman who is under substance abuse and my family is constantly picking me up from the streets because I'm so intoxicated I am not supposed to go to the parlor and get myself waxed that's right but these are the things I think that an actor has to bring on board because all the time everything the directors can't spoon feed you with why why would I expect a director to come and tell me that I want to cast you because without you this film can't happen because they they expect me to bring things on board and not just mug up lines that are provided to me and you know go in front of the camera and just blurt it out and there I'm done yeah I check and go back home I'm sleeping well right I think as an as an actor I have a responsibility to reinvent myself also to present myself in very different ways that will also you know make the audience want to watch my work so yeah I have I have done actually a lot of a lot of crazy roles I keep experimenting with my look and the kind of characters I play so last year in September the film was supposed to be released this April but of course because of the pandemic it couldn't I I've played a character of a Marwari lower middle class saleswoman who is in her mid 50s so you know people can't people don't think at the first go that they can see me with salt and pepper hair with a lot of freckles on my face you know showing the stretch marks on my tummy wearing a Siddha Pallu saree and walking in a very sloppish way they you know they're going to see me and super sexy blouses and saris and walking for people think that you know they they want to see me but it's also my job and responsibility to show them everything that I want to do and I want to grow as an actor I want to explore different characters I I want to you know develop myself so the only weapon I have is to play as much as much varied characters as I can mm-hmm I can't stick to one format that you know I'll only play characters who are early 30s right no no help definitely I can't have children because that'll make me feel old look old I will only with these set of heroes because they will make me feel young so I think you know um if somebody follows world cinema and so much of work is available on OTT platforms now and I really get so influenced by seeing how people are you know they really don't think of how they are looking how their bodies are you know how they just they just show their so much of their real self in front of the camera and that's why we remember those characters they are etched in our mind forever if you're playing a character where you are supposed to look bad then you have to look bad I mean just because you're a heroine you can't be looking good all the time so you know I I think when I when I actually wanted to you know really lift up my breasts and leave them so that you know the camera catches the fact that my breasts are not the way it should have been if I was a if I was in my 20s so when I suggested that I want to do that um the director and the the showrunner you know they they were like they swallowed for a second the kind of throat there I could see the lump in their throat and they were like uh you want to do that so I said yeah I mean what is the big deal let's go ahead so then they were like so we will just empty the room and you know ask all the extra technicians to go I said there is no need to do all that I mean no I don't think anybody in the unit expects me to have perky breasts like I'm 20 really let's come on let's do this yeah exactly exactly so you know after that shot is over when you finally meet Neeraj so we can we can we can cut there and you can wear your innards and we you know we can get along with the scene from there I said but then people will understand if you're holding me so tight like a mid-shot people will understand that just now this woman was crying because of her problems in her body and then in the next shot we see that she's just form and proper I said please don't worry about me I I don't want to I mean I said it's not even a headache now because you're asking me you know I'm thinking twice right I don't want to think and let's just you know get going with it but yeah I think you know people are more conscious and cautious in India because we have a certain notion of culture social who's the way people look at you you know it's just the Indian kind of concept actresses can't do this actresses can't do that they're not supposed to behave like this they cannot show this they cannot show that so in the Indian premises there's a lot of issues that actresses need to keep in mind to save themselves from you know being attacked because they have done a certain kind of role I at times feel that I should I should be more cautious but I don't know it just doesn't come to me naturally so my parents used to get very disturbed that you you can just do something some some films which doesn't get a certificate from the censor board you know you can you can just do some roles which are normal I said so I think this is normal because our lives are not you know not so hunky dory and the kind of films we want to watch as entertainment are real life are not like that so I would not want to portray anything like like that in the film which is so far away from the reality of the society and it's so you know so different and regressive just because I have to cater to a certain Indian mindset yeah problems are there but I don't know it just doesn't really occur to me that I need to follow follow all that so I'm very cool fantastic we love that I did we've talked to a few I think Abhishek said this and I've heard a few Indian artists I think we watched an interview with Ranveer where he said this where India in the past I don't know five years or 10 years or so since OTT platforms have came about it's basically a new wave of Indian cinema a more realistic which we've seen with we watched Sacred Games on Netflix and all the content Amazon's putting out do you see that change in Indian cinema to more realism yes more realism more natural way depicting stories the storytelling pattern has changed because of OTT platforms because directors and producers can experiment with a lot of concepts and ideas huge crores of budget is not required even if it is required I think it doesn't depend on the theatrical release that actually how many number of people will go to the theaters to watch this I think if Parthal Lok was a film or a two and a half hour film people would have really thought whether to make it or not but I'm not sure how many which part of the audience would have loved to go and watch it in the theaters yeah OTT platforms are giving that space to actors producers actors directors you know to explore to try out various things and they are being applauded people people are really looking forward to see um as real as possible stuff on OTT platforms you know not the usual masala you know the same equation kind of films that happened maybe two three years back mm-hmm yeah it's a huge change and a very big opportunity for everybody in the film industry also it's opening up it's opening up doors and windows to a lot of character artists who would not get their plays in a film yes like you know a series like Parthal Lok has over 200 cast so you can cast 200 solid actors how much of them would get a space in a in a fit good point in a in a two-hour play in a two-hour film yeah just mostly on the heroes for an ensemble cast of say five or six people you know how many how many actors can you place there but in a series you're you're you're opening up doors to 200 actors who must be struggling for the last five ten years and not getting an opportunity you know to really do some good work yeah when when Parthal Lok as an audience I loved everybody I mean even auto rickshaw driver even the journalist in in that Punjab area smallest of smallest characters I thought that they were they were meant to do that and they were they were that only inspector Manju she's a casting director from the casting agency that you know that worked on Parthal Lok so I really when I when I saw her I thought that she is the inspector where would he where would she get a chance to deliver such a performance if we were only sticking to films that will release in movie theaters yeah yes so it's a huge opportunity to for everybody absolutely is and I know that you've been early on in your career the majority of what you began to do was in soap work in in Bengal how did how did you get started as an actress I don't think we know the exact origin of how you became an actor so I was I was studying in Jadavpur University I was doing my honors course and a friend of us his father was a director and they were starting a new television series and they wanted to cast somebody new and fresh and so you know my friend got introduced me to his father and and I was very reluctant and I was not interested so I you know I really wanted to focus on studies I was a very good student I wanted to you know just pursue academics and so I just I just saw that my friend's father who was a very very renowned director of Bengal he started coming to the university every day trying to convince me so that I say yes and so I started you know giving them a lot of terms and conditions that I will only be able to work in the first half or the second half because I can't miss my entire college classes then I said that I will only I will take so this much amount of money for my per day remuneration so I thought that they are just going to say no to everything on the contrary they were they said yes to everything and then I didn't I didn't take I was I didn't even take you know take it so seriously when I started working I thought that you know it's fine I'll get some pocket money you know I'll just I don't need to ask for money from my mom and I can take care of my own expenses that I can go for shopping and all that so I was just taking it very lightly until and unless I saw that the reviews that were coming out in the media about that specific television series which was a blockbuster as far as the commercial commercials went it was a super hit show on tv but the reviews were slamming me left right and center they have written all bad things and I mean the words that can be written for an artist they had written all that and that when it's that was when it struck me that you know the I I need to do this seriously or I should not do it every morning I'm opening a newspaper because social media and internet and all that was not there that time so I'm like opening a newspaper in my house and I just see there are 10 lines dedicated to me thrashing me left right in center so I decided that man this is the serious business and I need to you know need to be need to do it right and I need to learn things and my father is a was a very very renowned artist he was in the industry for almost 50 years so then I used to go back home and learn from him various techniques and you know how to how to emote and how to cry you know how just how to behave because my father always told me one thing very very fiercely that as an actor it is not your job to act you just have to behave like the character so don't need to act and think it I have to act you just have to place yourself as the character in that situation under those circumstances and behave the way the character should behave so I you know I started taking tips from him I used to get you know get flustered when I thought that okay somebody my director is going to tell me action and I'm supposed to start crying how is it possible for a human to do that I mean and I used to think the most horrible things that can happen in my life the most horrible things that has happened in my life and still I saw that my eyes were like dry as a dessert and I'm like how am I supposed to do this but then with you know with every every work that I that I got involved in I just started practicing and trying to use the techniques that we are supposed to use at various points and chose to do a lot of different difficult characters when I moved from television to films and I had started I had started with hardcore commercial films you know the dancing around trees commercial films as we see in a cinema so I started with those kind of films and then I moved towards the more sensible cinema so it's been a very very long journey but I just keep trying to learn and I think as an actor it's very important to surrender yourself totally to the character you can't really think oh I can't you know I can't I can't look bad I can't look ugly my my my you know my physicality has to be on point perfect you just have to forget all of that and switch off and just be yourself as the character whichever character you're playing that is how you know the audience can connect with you so you you are not supposed to be at your best all the time in front of the camera because I don't think as an actor we can really cheat the camera I mean the camera captures everything correct every every muscle emotion the the little bit of glistening in your eyes you know everything is important so if you're playing a character where you where the defects in your body need to be shown you show it where you're playing a character where you need to look important sexy you do that you get ready for that role that way so when I when I came on board for Detective Bonkej Bakshi I was confirmed for the character the role on 31st December 2013 and we started shooting for the film around mid-January 2014 and Divakar had told me the director Divakar Banerjee that I need to lose weight because you know then in 2014-15 also Bollywood was very specific about thin bodies now you look in a specific way so I said okay fine you give me two weeks time I'll do the needful so I went to a dietician I started doing rigorous gym I had lost 7 kilos in 10 days wow yeah and and I maintained that you know that body weight and the entire process I maintained it for four months till April till we finish the shoot wow so my point is if you have to do that because you have to look in a certain way you do that right right and if you have to look in a certain way like the way Dolly Mehra looks you have to do that too in some other role you know if you're if you're supposed to have dark circles under your eyes you have to show that you have dark circles I mean why the hell will I use foundation to you know for for people to see that you know I'm like oh so perfect my face is just right right I think of actors who who really want to excel in their craft and it's 2020 where at the click of a button people can see work that's happening all across the world yes I'm a huge fan of Norwegian shows and I watch everything that's happening in that part of the world and I've seen detectives you know actors playing detectives who are plus size you know they're their their hair is completely unkempt all the time nothing is set up if you if you look at them you really feel that they have a family to take care of their single parents they are you know they're struggling to reach their kids to school and then they're going to work there's no lipstick there's no mascara their hair is like just in a rubbish state they are not they're they're plus size people they're like tucking their shirts over their tummy and they're running to the police stations to do their work and like I'm a fan of that yeah yes I don't want to see an actor in stilettos wearing lacy bras and you know dropping their kids at school with tiffin boxes whatever bottles at hand because it gets so unbelievable correct yep I cannot even relate to the story so now when you know there are tons of odg platforms and people can see whatever is happening all over the world as an actor from India I also have to compete with that level looking pretty is not a criteria at all looking the way character should look look is my only concern I enjoyed that I would I want to ask you before we finish the first thing we saw you in was detective how do you say it I'm sorry detective I I always thank you I always butcher that name and you were working with but you know he is a he is a Bengali yeah oh yeah so in Bengali we pronounce the name very differently but when we when the Hindi audience pronounces it it becomes very different and Bengalis get very angry with that it's it's is it yeah in Hindi they would say bhyamkesh bakshi but in Bengali it would be bhyamkesh bakshi yes yes you are being taught your lessons paid off but we uh that was the first thing we saw you in and you were working with Sushant and then now his last film you're also in so I just wanted to ask you how was it working with Sushant for multiple times in just your experience working with him yes so it's actually quite it's saddening to even you know talk and discuss about him and I think I'm the only actor who has worked in two films with him so I and I just realized that after he's gone that I I'm the only one who has worked with him in two films so uh when we did detective bhyamkesh bakshi together that was his third film so he did kaipoche should desi romance and he did detective bhyamkesh bakshi so uh what I really saw in him was this hunger to do a lot of different roles and I you know all the conversations that we have had uh on the sets I really didn't think he was um wanting to fall into the bollywood uh how to put it you know bollywood uh makes certain kind of heroes yes you know our thoughts and our notions and presumptions and assumptions of bollywood heroes are of a certain kind them in a certain kind of films we think they are good in those certain kind of films and we don't see them experimenting too much if you are part of the bollywood a-lister heroes yeah right I really didn't feel that Sushant wanted to fall into that specific category otherwise the kind of film that he has chosen in his very small career were different from one another another you know he's the one who did detective bhyamkesh bakshi and at the very early stage of his film career which is which was quite a risk because when you are in the big bollywood uh you know platter you would want to play it very safe you would want to go with the flow play very safe do projects that were a sure shot hit with the audience so he kind of the first film kai koche was not a run of the mill then he did romance but then again he did detective bakshi which was a very risky move for his career you know doing that film playing that character wearing a dhoti and a period film you would not want to risk it at such a early stage of the career that see which is a biopic and it makes your work so much more uh you know uh difficult the people already have a notion of of the person you're portraying everybody knows and then you know you are playing Dhoni so you you really have to become the person which is again risk and way way way more hard work he also did a film like sonchiriya which is on you know like you're a goon and chambal you don't even look like a hero you're filled with mud and dust and all kinds of crap you know you just never look good in a film you're looking the character but you never look like the so-called you know larger than life hero charming dashing huha not there then chichore completely or you know 180 degree turn from all the kind all the rest of the film that he has done so you know when you when you when you converse with him apart from he was uh avid reader very intelligent intelligent was never into the bollywood hullabaloo kind of you know that i need to party every day i need to are every day i really never saw him uh having that kind of a mindset on the sets so i i really think as an actor he wanted to make a mark of his own not falling into the usual trap of doing the same thing over and over again just to you know keep his audience happy he took a lot of risks in choosing the kind of films that he chose to do and um um very hard-working um very simple i actually didn't i have worked with him in his initial years and then i did did which are uh just you know 2018-19 uh so i really didn't see him as a changed person that way because fame really hits you very hard over here and one film after you can see a person and think that oh my god they've changed completely because you know the popularity just to your mind yeah i thought he was very grounded very warm and uh when we were shooting for Dilbechara so there was this very famous dialogue of Anguri Devi which of course i played a detective where she said uh so this one dialogue comes a lot of times in Detective Omkesh Vakshi and when we started doing Dilbechara whenever i met Sushant on the set or in the hotel he always used to come and tell me this you know with the same uh feeling and same angst you know that Hindi Omkesh dialogue and our director Mukesh Chhabra used to get so frantic and he used to come running and tell Sushant, don't talk to this Bengali woman like this concentrate on the daughter she's playing the mother and he always used to you know play play this thing in front of Mukesh Chhabra who's the director and he was always like Sushant and Swastika y'all will not be standing beside each other and once people to have the hangover of Detective Omkesh Vakshi she's the mother she's the mother you just concentrate on the daughter don't stand beside her don't why are you all just going on saying that for me you too Omkesh Vakshi dialogues why do i keep going back to the film you know what if the audience smells the Omkesh Vakshi thing in your life i said i'm playing the girl's mother so technically i am the mother in law of Sushant you chill i know they remember to tell us that from where does swastika from what angle does she look like the mother i mean what are you all doing i said when the film will come out i will look like the mother i will make that people just cannot see anything else other than other than and the mother of the girl but when the camera is not working make me let me breathe and we used to have we used to really have very uh uh superlative i think conversations also we were shooting in jamshedpur so so shant carried his telescope in jamshedpur which he kept in his room balcony and uh we were all invited to go and see the stars through it i think i loved doing that and i also actually told him the day i had signed Dilbichara and i met him at the foxtar studios he had come for costume trials and everything so i told him that Sushant my first bollywood big film happened with you and now my second bollywood big film is happening with you again so i think you know our stars are intertwined and very promptly you know he just replied saying i just hope they are not faulty oh because Dilbichara is a is a remake of faulty stars yeah so then obviously i told told him that stop you know stop playing this intelligent human always you know coming up with all these um and you know i was just pulling his leg but uh yeah i mean two big films in my career in in so-called bollywood yeah and two of those are with him so i think i'll just a lot of memories and very cherished ones but it's very very unfortunate i want to thank you for talking about it i know it's probably not the easiest thing to talk about right now but we are very much looking forward to that film uh and obviously watching just yes what you do uh i just yeah or ben and rick do do watch Dilbichara oh we are we're going to the minute it comes out i would just want to finish off here uh with a little bit of just a couple of rapid fire questions uh not nothing really important just want to know your opinion so the first one would be coffee or chai chai okay favorite alcoholic beverage if you drink alcohol um yeah of course i like it i'm not that that greater actually is that i can act and say oh i know no alcohol so what's um borbon borbon uh favorite hollywood film uh also bakadi white rum you know absolutely favorite hollywood film favorite hollywood film hollywood yeah um forever or i think uh roman holiday oh i try a lot like i try buckets full whenever i watch it favorite indian film any genre and in language jojita or he's sick under it's a khan film quite old we were we were in i think just passing out of school or early yeah i think school only has amazing songs and uh amerikan i think really was a school kid i don't know he just looks like a school kid in that but i can i can i think i've watched it um 40 45 times i can still watch it more 45 times right now memory lot of everything associated with the film favorite hollywood director um um um tarantino now because i just love the blood yes absolutely uh favorite favorite hollywood or american british actor or actress um see there are a lot of good serious actors i can name but i think i'll just name someone who is extremely good-looking and not that an amazing actor because i think looks are very important so i can give very serious names of black and white you know film actors who i who i love watching um uh but i would say um sydney poiter and also uh george cloney both very attractive man i like it and the range is like you know it's like the himalayan range so one is that side and the other yes yes yes yes uh and uh favorite book love in the time of cholera love in the time of what cholera okay going down if you haven't read it then please read it okay i just wrote it down yeah and last one um why are white foreign actors so bad in indian cinema i feel it's not this can't be a rapid fire this is like a i've asked it to i've asked it to everybody uh i i think i don't know i i just feel that they're always we just really really uh do a lot of hard work and pick up the worst actors whom we show as uh foreigners in indian film they are bad to look at yep they try and speak hindi i don't know what why is the need for them to speak hindi which is just atrocious and uh they act bad i mean you know just let it be i mean they can act bad they can say bad hindi but at least if they are good looking i know i i'll be half very very bad looking actors who speak in english and very half half horribly bad half hindi and i don't know i think we we really the directors and producers are really talented people to find uh find them i don't know from where they find them but it's it's it's really bad i'm unhappy all the time well if you ever are in a film and they are casting a white actor and it's a terrible person just know you know two white people that uh will happily do it i want you both and right yes absolutely well i want to thank you so much for talking to us it was lovely talking to you uh your joy to talk to you we will talk after i stop press record but uh we are very much looking forward to uh watching anything you do but especially uh susan's last film we're definitely going to be watching that uh rick rick yeah i just i can't i can't tell you sincerely um you you when i saw you in pata lock instantly you became for me one of the top actors american indian whatever anything you're doing i want to watch because in that film i saw oh my goodness this this woman is an actress and it's a wonderful thing to watch you act looking forward to the rest of what you're going to do in your career and when i make a an indian version of the bridges of madison county i want you to play them i'm not so i'm not kidding i would put the film later but the book i think you know i i have the book mugged up in my head and mind also the sequel of of that book oh my god i mean it's it's one of my most most favorite most favorite books that i have read and the pain and that the pathos and that you know they just you know not i think they're not they not um becoming together makes makes the journey so special yes but yes i don't know it just crosses my mind that they should have been together i mean oh come on of course they should have of course they should have i do i want to set it in calcutta i am not kidding well i'm looking forward to this film uh once again thank you so much for talking to us it was it was lovely talking to you thank you