Holly high for Kahaani hero

Actor Parambrata Chattopadhyay, who recently endeared himself to national audiences as the cop with a heart in Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani, has one foot in Bollywood already. He has been talking about lead roles with at least three important Bollywood directors and may also act in a Hollywood film. 

With a string of successful Tollywood hits behind him like Baishe Sraban and Hemlock Society, Param is now busy finishing his directorial venture in Bengali, Hawa Badal. He talks about all this and more in a candid interview with Millennium Post. Here are excerpts: 

I’m talking to directors like Sujoy Ghosh, Dibakar Banerjee and Anurag Kashyap on their upcoming projects. With Sujoy Ghosh, I have read the script as well. Ghosh’s film will probably take off before the others. All these directors make offbeat films and I’m happy that in Bollywood the line between commercial films and meaningful cinema is increasingly getting blurred. It means there are more opportunities for actors like me.

This film is about two friends and how they discover each other as adults. Rudranil and I are the protagonists and the female roles are played by Raima Sen and Neha Panda, respectively. The two friends meet after a gap of 10 years and discover that they are no longer boys. Their lives also get intertwined towards the end. The shooting is complete and I’m editing the film. It should release by the end of the year. I’m keen on directing more films.

I am doing a hilarious comedy by Birsa Dasgupta in which Tanushree plays the female lead. Then there are two other films by two other promising new directors like Soumik Chatterjee and Arunabha Khasnobis. Then I’m doing a Hollywood film in the US. It’s all tied up but I can’t tell you more about it yet. 

Among the recent films I’ve done, I would rate Kahaani as the best. From the time the story was told to the very end, I think the protagonist [played by Vidya Balan] carried the audience along with her till the very end. As for my role as Rana, I had to do a bit of homework at the police stations and both Vidya and Sujoy inspired me continuously.

Prosenjit, we all call him Bumbada, is a classy actor. He makes you feel completely at ease in a frame and is extremely cooperative. As for Vidya, I rate her as one of the finest actors of India today and she can carry a film on her own shoulders. Also, she is very careful that the film will look good.

I don’t see Vidya acting in a Bengali film yet but would love to direct her.