Saswata comes back to small screen

Making a comeback to the small screen after several years, actor Saswata Chatterjee, known for his roles in "Kahaani" and "Jagga Jasoos", said he never looked upon television as an inferior sibling of the big screen.

In fact, he said it was because of his small screen roles that he had been picked up by Mrinal Sen and Anurag Basu for their films.

Speaking on the sets of upcoming Bengali serial "Apur Sansar", Saswata said, "It is television which has made Saswata Chatterjee. TV as a medium of entertainment cannot and should not be belittled by a film actor." The established actor of the Bengali screen, said he was told by Anurag that he had wanted to cast him in a film by him ever since he watched him in a tv serial "Ek Akasher Niche" (which was made in 2002 and was aired for couple of years).

"No, it was not for my role in Kahaani. Anurag said he had wanted to cast me long before Kahaani (2012) happened," the actor, who had given a memorable performance as Bob Biswas in "Kahaani", said.

"Even Mrinal Sen took me (as Nur) in Amar Bhuban (2002) for my role in a serial," he said. He also acted in a Hindi serial by Saibal Mitra (1995) and in Doordarshan's Feluda telefilm series by Sandip Ray (1992).

About the serial Apur Sansar (no relation to Satyajit Ray's immortal movie), Saswata said the title had references to his petname 'Apu' and his family.

It is a stage comedy show with scope of improvisation which takes a peek into the crisis faced in middle class households and there will be celebrity guests like actor Indrani Halder in the show, he said.

"I love comedy and my characters in Sandip Ray's "Jekhane Bhooter Bhoy" and Anik Dutta's "Bhooter Bhobisyot" had comic elements and I enjoyed doing such roles. Now I am doing a comedy show for TV. Let's see how it turns out," he said.

Meanwhile, Saswata's next Bengali film is "Chhakbaz" (fixer/schemer) where he enacts the role of a fixer who settles deals between real estate developers and ordinary people, power brokers, shady financial companies and their political masters.