My inspiration is Meryl Streep: Rituparna Sengupta

Popular actress Rituparna Sengupta, who is gearing up to play an important non-glamorous role in Reshmi Mitra’s upcoming film Baranda, which is based on the novel by noted writer Moti Nandi, says that when it comes to films, it’s time to focus on literature.

At the recent press conference of the film which was held at a banquet hall of Kolkata, Rituparna said to media, “Reshmi had told me long back that we should do a film on this novel because it’s a very sensitive subject. I also feel that moving away from remakes we should do more films on literature because I guess audience has become bored of remakes (laughs).”  

“We have abundant literature which we need to unfold because audience wants to know what the yesteryear writers had written. Also our experience tells us that people are interested to watch films which are adopted from novels. Moti Nandi was such an author whose many of the works have been adopted into cinema. Koni was one of the popular films which was based on his novel.  A few days back, I did Sanjoy Nag’s Parapaar and it had received critical acclaim. And after this, now Reshmi’s Baranda came to me. I would like to thank Moti family for letting us work on this project,” she added.   

Baranda will see her playing the character of Runu who is the daughter of a poor nurse who used to earn money, in her spare time by adopting prostitution in her own house.

Talking about her role, Rituparna said, “The character of Runu is strange. There are times when frustration leads people to dark however, Runu finds a ray of light in that darkness but again frustration makes a way into her life. There is a strange travel in the life of Runu, which I will get to explore once the shooting begins.”  

When Tellychakkar.com quizzed if she feels there is more scope to act when a film is based on literature and the actor gets to play a de glam role, she opined, “I don’t feel so. I feel every character has an exciting element. But yes, playing de glamorous roles are not always easy. Considering the lifestyle we lead, it’s a challenge for an actor to make the character look convincing. An actor has to mould herself completely to look de glamorous and make the character believable.”   

The glamorous and talented actress feels that she has reached a stage where she needs to explore her acting prowess more by taking up challenging roles.   

She quipped, “I think I have reached a stage where I need to challenge myself as an actress. My inspiration is Meryl Streep and I was awestruck when I saw her in The Iron Lady.  At this stage of my acting career, I feel I should do something challenging at every step. Or else it becomes mundane. My body of work was always exciting. If you watch my work chronologically, you will observe that my work has always been challenging.  I have experimented with innumerable different characters ranging from Bedini to Rajkahini to Praktan to Bela Seshe toParapaar then also from Shoshur Bari Zindabad to Patadar Kirti.”

Baranda also stars the Theatrician Bratya Basu and Saheb Bhattacharjee.

Praising the director and her co-actors in the film, the versatile actress said, “I have already worked with Reshmi in an earlier film titled Mukti. She has a great flair for writing and I like the way she feels the characters. She can feel (the emotion of) both a man and a woman.”

“I hope it will be a good film and it has a very interesting combination of actors which includes Bratya Basu, Saheb Bhattacharjee and me. Saheb is doing interesting work these days. I have done a film with him a few days back called Aro Ekbar.”

Great going, Rituparna!

Produced by Easel and also starring actors like Manali Dey and Sreela Majumder, the shooting of the film kick-started from 23 February. The shoot will take place at various parts of North and South Kolkata.  

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