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On role playing
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In conversation with actor Roopa Ganguly
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Photo: PTI
Still shining Roopa Ganguly
Primarily a big screen actor, her career high point is, however, a small screen role. Though she has some impressive roles in Bengali cinema to count, Roopa Ganguly, even after 20 years, is in public memory for the role of Draupadi in B.R. ChopraR
17;s popular tele-serial ‘Mahabharat’.
Though times have changed for Indian television since the ‘Mahabharat’ days, Roopa can still be seen in serials. Her latest role is that of a thakurain in the daily soap ‘Agle Jam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo’ on Zee TV. “I play the role of a thakurain, who is supposed to balance the family. Mine is a subdued role as I play an obedient wife who carries her husband’s (Sudesh Berry) orders.”
About her long break from television, Roopa, also remembered for the popular peppy number ‘Kali Teri chotti…’ in “Bahaar Aane Tak” in the early 1990s, says: “In my 24-year career, I have taken four long, deliberate breaks. For instance, I wanted to marry at the right age, so I took a break. Then I took a year-long maternity break. Even now I go back home (to Kolkata) twice or thrice a month.” Television, she finds, “more strenuous than films with longer working hours”. “The preparation time for TV is very little, but if an actor wants he / she can put that extra effort in a character.” One other difference she finds between TV and films “is the lens. Otherwise, everything is the same, the concentration, the energy…”.
Post ‘Mahabharat’, though Roopa featured in a few films such as “Bahar Aane Tak”, “Meena Bazaar”, etc., she gradually faded from Bollywood. She responds: “The last decade of Hindi films was not ideal for heroines. Many of the roles demanded skin show, I was not comfortable with that. That is why I preferred concentrating on Bengali cinema where no film was delayed for release or remained in the cans. My films have not gone to the greater part of the audience, but I feel good that I went back to Kolkata.” Looking back, she says: “I am very happy and satisfied with what I did.”
Besides acting, Roopa has other plans: “I want to do different things, now I intend to do script-writing for Bengali cinema.” She is keen on scripts that deal with day-to-day issues. “There are so many hidden emotions and beauties that are not taken up. Now, I am going to take them up in my films.” However, she will not be found acting in her films. The doe-eyed actress signs off saying: “I work on my will, I am a freelancer.”
S.M. AAMIR
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