After her scintillating performance as a seductive yesteryear heroine ‘Anguri Devi’ in Dibakar Banerjee’s Bollywood flick ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshi’, Bengali actor Swastika Mukherjee rues she is not getting to portray roles of commoners.
This, she feels, is due to the fact that the directors here are not sure if her known image of a “sophisticated urban woman” will sync with the image of a maid or vendor in train compartment.
“In Bollywood, directors have greater faith in actors.
You can see an Alia Bhat portraying a pock-marked rural woman in ‘Udta Punjab’ which is a departure from her micro-flaunting image.
In Bengali cinema the directors are not willing to experiment me beyond my known image as a sophisticated urban woman”, Swastika, who essays coquettish Bibi in Pratim D Gupta’s Saheb Bibi Golaam, told PTI.
“I am ready for such roles, portraying a lower middle class woman, a poor woman, say a maid or a woman hawker I wish to do a role I will be absolutely in love with.
As an actor I should not be stuck with one image. But here in Bengali film industry I am mostly not given that wide scope and drastically different from previous ones, Swastika said.
Asked about Roopa Ganguly having done a maid s role in Nayanchapar Dinratri by Sekhar Das at the end of her career before joining politicis, Swastika said, yes any character which excites me.
But what frustrates me is the way people in the industry here feels my urban, sophisticated look can t be moulded enough for the role of a poor, mofussil girl in search of job”.
PTI