nandita das

By: Upala KBR, Mid-Day

Nandita Das has been keeping very busy this year.

She's just completed four films -Santosh Sivan's Kerala (Road To The Sky), Chitra Palekar's Marathi film Maati Maaye, Suman Ghosh's Bengali Padakkhep and KNT Shastri's Telegu, Kamli.

Says Nandita, "Yes, last year besides the special appearance I did in Provoked, I didn't sign new films. This year has been packed and varied with four different filmmakers and languages."

Amongst the four, which character is the one closest to her heart? "That's difficult to answer. All films and their characters are close to my heart and each one is different from the other. What makes each one special are the experiences shared in every film.

Getting real
She brings fieriness to every role of hers. Nandita smiles, "There is a bit of myself in every role that I play. I try to put myself into people's shoes. It's how I would react given that particular situation under those circumstances as the character I was playing.

I like to make my characters slightly credible. It's as if five different actresses were given the same role, they would all portray it differently. Every role becomes real for me and I start identifying the character as someone who actually exists."

But more than the role, Nandita was keen to do Padakkhep because she wanted to work with Soumitra Chaterjee.

"It's the story of an older man and how old people get lonely and start behaving like children. It's also about the generation gap. I play his daughter who feels for her dad but there is still a difference of opinion.

I could relate to the film. I have some wonderful older friends like Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen who are so witty and their outlook on life is so refreshing."

Director's cut
Commercial cinema is one area where she's not ventured much into. Nandita shoots back, "It's been eight years and for me, it's not about art or commercial cinema but good or bad films. I would love to do commercial films, provided I can connect to , believe in and feel troubled about it.

Acting is not a career for me but a means of communication. I should relate to the story treatment. People feel I only love to do art films but they, too, can be pretentious and boring.

What should I gain when nobody would watch such a film? Sometimes, I do get disillusioned about the way a film turns out to be, but then what to do? I would like to direct a film someday - I am working on a script as and when it happens, it will..."