A fine balance

JITESH PILLAAI INTERVIEWS THE DOYENNE OF BENGALI CINEMA. RITUPARNA SENGUPTA

- JITESH PILLAAI

She has been the shining light of Bengali cinema since the last three decades and her lustre hasn't dimmed one bit in the intervening years. Rituparna Sengupta has been carrying forward the tradition of Bengali actresses like Suchitra Sen, Madhabi Mukherjee and Aparna Sen, of successfully marrying mart with art. She's been comfortable in both the worlds, giving hits after hits commercially and also endearing herself to avant-garde Bengali filmmakers like her namesake Rituparno Ghosh. The actress is taking more and more chances in recent times, trying to push her limits with each outing and has also learnt to balance her work life with marital harmony. Excerpts from a freewheeling interview with the firebrand performer, where she's as candid as always...

HOW DID YOU GET COVID-19? AND HOW COME YOU'RE IN SINGAPORE?

Singapore is my home. My family lives here. My husband (Sanjay Chakrabarty) and my children - (daughter Rishona Niya Chakrabarty and son Ankan Chakrabarty) - everybody is in Singapore. My reel life is in India but my real home is in Singapore. I have to be here in Singapore once every two months. I don't know how I got COVID-19. (Laughs) Maybe it wanted to come to me and thought, why not visit Rituparna for some time. Because I have no idea how. I was in Singapore since the lockdown and I have had a wonderful time with my family which was long overdue. My husband's only complaint is that we don't spend as much time as we should because of my profession. This time, we could give each other a lot of time and my family loved it. After that, I came back to India and I was trying to wrap up projects quickly so I could come home again. And then, I had a brush with the infection. I was in the quarantine centre which was a beautiful resort kind of thing and it was just another experience for me.

WHAT MEMORIES DO YOU HAVE OF FILMFARE?