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photo: SHANKER CHAKRAVERTY

many shades Rituparna Sengupta in New Delhi

“No, no, I think my hair still needs combing…” she gets up in between interviews to get perfectly photographed. A well-known face in Bengali cinema, Rituparna was noticed in Hindi films with her debut in Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh which didn’t do so well at the box office though.

In producer Amit Mohan’s Gauri – The Unborn, she plays an ambitious girl, wife and a mother opposite Atul Kulkarni. She aborts her first child to get more settled in life. “Through Roshni I got to play a wide range of emotions – that of a charming working woman, a romantic wife and a doting mother. It couldn’t have been possible in a small role of a big banner film. I accept roles keeping in mind my status in the Bengali film industry. I am one of the most respected actors there, so I can’t take up lighter roles,” says Rituparna, the winner of National Award for Rituparno Ghosh’s Dahan.

A dancer, poetess, writer, producer and a social activist, Rituparna turned towards Bollywood after she noticed that a woman didn’t need to be just a showpiece in films.

“I have been keeping a keen eye on Bollywood to make an entry. Thankfully, these times are the best for women in Bollywood because they get a range of films to satisfy their creative thirst. Now, they don’t need to be very beautiful or wear only minis to be noticed. Bollywood has grown mature. It treats different heroines in different ways and according to their age,” she says. And in what she claims to be intelligent choices, she has accepted roles that “would make some sense”.

So, in her kitty are Sirf, Mittal vs Mittal, BBD, and Saab Chai Paani.

“All these films have a range of emotions to play, from an innocent girl of Jabalpur to a wife coping with a psychic husband, to one caught in county politics,” she shares. Her Chander Bari (House of Moon) opposite Rahul Bose, has just been released in Bengal. “This film would be dubbed in Hindi soon,” she shares.

Rituparna, who has worked with almost all the stalwarts of the Bengali film industry including Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Aparna Sen, Sandip Ray, Raja Sen, Tarun Majumdar, Ashok Viswanathan among others, nurtures a dream – of playing a Madhuri Dixit in Tezaab and a Kajol in Fanaa.

She has already appointed a communications manager in Bollywood who, by the way, looks after the promotional dos of Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu and John Abraham, etc. Way to go?

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