Discovered Shakespeare on the job: Sohini Sarkar
The actress mentions how excessive use of social media often disrupts her day
In the past 11 years, Sohini Sarkar has mostly taken on roles that demand a strong and impactful portrayal. Whether she was playing Royona in ‘Bibaho Diaries’, Jaya in ‘Vinci Da’, Satyabati in the ‘Byomkesh’ films or Rajlaxmi in the web series ‘Srikanto’ or ‘Sampurna’ on OTT, her powerful performances have always been appreciated. While her talent for portraying strong characters is well-known, Sohini doesn’t regret not always landing such roles. “It’s not within my control. The responsibility lies with the writers, directors and producers to offer me substantial characters. So, when you ask why I appeared in only two films in 2023 - ‘Abar Bibaho Obhijaan’ and ‘Kabuliwala’ - I don’t really have an answer because it’s not up to me,” she smiled.
Now, Sohini is back on the big screen with a strong performance and character in director Arna Mukhopadhyay’s ‘Athhoi’, a Bengali adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’. She will be seen as Desdemona aka Diyamona in the film.
Interestingly, this is not Sohini’s first tryst with Shakespeare. Previously, she played Lady Macbeth aka Laili in Anirban Bhattacharya’s debut film ‘Mandaar’, delivering a raw and edgy performance that left the audiences highly impressed. She also has a unique connection to ‘Athhoi’. In this superhit Bengali play, Sohini brought Desdemona to life in five to six shows. So, when Arna decided to adapt it into a film, choosing Sohini was an obvious choice.
“I am not a student of theatre, but as an actor, I discovered Shakespeare while working on ‘Mandaar’ and ‘Athhoi. His works, written years ago, remain relevant today. We may have shopping malls and smartphones, but the core of human nature hasn’t changed. No one has captured the complexities and grey areas of human beings better than Shakespeare,” said the ‘Durga Sohay’ actor, who is set to tie the knot with singer Shovan Ganguly in mid-July. Though she didn’t disclose many details, she assured that marriage wouldn’t interrupt her acting career.
For ‘Athhoi’, Sohini had the advantage of prior experience with theatre production and she always enjoys the process of script reading. “In ‘Mandaar’, Anirban’s excellent narration helped us understand each character deeply. Similarly, in ‘Athhoi’, Arna da, Anirban and cinematographer Soumik Haldar made the journey smooth with their meticulous pre-production work, marking each shot carefully. The same level of preparation was there in ‘Phoring’ as well,” she said.
Today in Tollywood, films are often completed within 10-15 days, which helps save costs for producers. However, Sohini emphasised the importance of excellent pre-production to make this possible. “We can’t always blame the producers. Single screens are shutting down and producers need ways to make money. Reducing the number of shooting days helps, but this requires outstanding pre-production work like in the case of ‘Athhoi’,” said Sohini, who has ‘Amar Sangi’ with Vikram Chatterjee, a Hindi project by Sirsha Roy and a Bangladeshi web series in the pipeline.
Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ paints a picture of deceit and manipulation, much like today’s social media. Sohini mentioned how excessive use of social platforms often disrupts her day and affects her mother’s health too. Despite its drawbacks, she recognises the benefits of social media.
