‘Kolkata reminds me of Rituparno Ghosh’

Kolkata: For Deepti Naval, the death of director Rituparno Ghosh was a “personal loss.” Every time she is in Kolkata, Naval fondly reminisces about the time spent with the flamboyant filmmaker during the making of the movie ‘Memories in March’ (2011).

“Though I can’t speak Bengali properly, I can understand the language. The demise of Rituparno Ghosh is a personal loss. He wanted to work with me. Although I couldn’t collaborate with him on a project but at least I could work in a screenplay written by him (Memories of March was directed by Sanjay Nag),” said the actress, who has worked in cult classics like ‘Chasme Buddoor’, and ‘Freaky Chakra’.

Soon, the actress will be seen playing a significant role in ‘Mother Teresa & Me’, a film by Swiss-Indian director Kamal Musale. The movie is about the early years of Mother Teresa in India (from the mid-1940s), and Naval plays the character of Deepali, a close associate of Mother Teresa and a guardian to Kavita, a British young girl of Indian origin who travels to India in search of answers.

Naval was drawn to the character graph of Deepali and the noble cause of the film. “Any earnings from the film will be used to serve the underprivileged kids for their health and education,” said the ‘Kamla’ and ‘Ankahee’ actress.

The 71-year-old actress, who made her debut in 1978 with Shyam Benegal’s ‘Junoon’, recently visited Kolkata for the launch of her new book, ‘A Country Called Childhood: A Memoir.’ She had been writing the memoirs for 20 years but completed it during the lockdown.

Kolkata holds a special place in Naval’s heart as she considers it to be one of her favourite cities. She has a school friend who resides in Kolkata, and she often meets her industry friends Gautam Ghose and Moon Moon Sen. These days, writing takes up much of her time. But she enjoyed her stint on OTT with ‘Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors’ and ‘Made

in Heaven’. “A lot of new talents are coming up through OTT, and all of them are bright. I like working on OTT,” said the actress, who was the face of parallel cinema in India in the 1980s alongside Smita Patel and Shabana Azmi.