After getting good reviews for her performance in Tolly Lights, Sreelekha is now looking forward to the two films; Smriti Medur and Hello Kolkata while Antarotamo is being finalised. Here she talks about her balancing act of being housewife and mother on the one hand and an actress on the other..
Would you call yourself a late bloomer in feature films? Not really because I have done several feature films before Tolly Lights and I was also leading lady in some. Unfortunately, the films did not do well. I was so busy with television serials where I was a much-in-demand actress with a rising audience quotient that feature films not quite ‘happening’ did not bother me too much. I was very young and inexperienced when I began my career. That maybe the reason why I am a ‘late bloomer’ if you want it put that way.
How close is Krishnokoli, the housewife-turned-film star you play in Arjun Chakraborty’s Tolly Lights to Sreelekha Mitra, the actress-housewife-mother in real life? I don’t see any resemblance at all. Krishnokoli becomes a star after having been a housewife and mother. I married when I was well into films and television. With my husband and I running our own production house, managing the fronts of home and work has not been problematic. My attention is focused on giving my two-year-old daughter Oishi the best and the most natural childhood I can. Krishnokoli changes when she becomes a star but still has this emotional vacuum her elderly lover cannot fill. She misses her son who has been taught to hate his mother. I have tried to invest the character with as much flesh-and-blood as I could, with the help of Arjunda. I am grateful to him for having chosen me over other famous actresses.
Your role in Smriti Medur is unusual they say? Yes. It is the story of love between two unequals, a young bachelor who lives in Kolkata and a beautiful young woman, married with a missing husband, older than the bachelor. The story revolves around my character named Smriti. She lives in a guesthouse in the hills that belongs to Abani Babu played by Biswajit Chakraborty. Based on a story and screenplay by Sunit Bhattacharjee, it is in the form of a diary being written by a young man, Ayan (Ritwik Chakraborty), who sets out on a holiday to a hilly place in North Bengal with his college friends. He develops a relationship with Smriti. It is a role with many shades and there is a dramatic twist in the end.
What is Hello Kolkata all about? It is about two couples unhappy in their married lives for very different reasons. I play the wife among one of these two couples. My character, Sheela, is a modern, upbeat, urban woman. But the fact that they do not have kids makes the marriage unhappy. Sudip Mukherjee, who plays my husband, has problems in his working life too and this aggravates the problems within the marriage. It is being directed by Manoj Michigan and the shoot began with our ‘wedding anniversary’ celebrated at a house off EM Bypass.
What kind of actress is Sreelekha Mitra? She is a director’s actress. I believe in surrendering completely to the director. I offer suggestions if the director is open to them otherwise I keep tightlipped. I see the script first and then the character I am being offered. If I like the script, I begin to look at the character firstly in terms of its significance to the script and secondly in terms of its length. I will not take on a hollow character and the footage does not matter.
Tell us about your experience with Aamir and Saif in two big commercials. Everyone in Bollywood, especially actors like Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan are extremely professional, methodical and hardworking. I credit them because they have more or less made it to the top on their own steam. Aamir is so completely involved in any work that he does that the intensity rubs off onto his portrayal. Saif too works as hard. The Bollywood scenario is mercilessly cut-throat. It does not give you second chance, no one to show mercy if you slip. It was a mind-blowing experience and a learning experience for me.
You are still doing television? Yes. I am still into television because I am grateful to this medium for having given me the best chance of exploring several shades of my potential as an actress. Be it television, cinema or commercials, I enjoy whatever I do. Right now, I am playing a very important role in Probahini E Shomoy in one of the satellite channels. I loved my roles in Swapner Rong Neel and Ei to Jeebon very much. But my biggest high is the Best Actress award I bagged for my role in Bappaditya Bandopadhyay’s off beat film Kantataar.
