Anasuya Sengupta, who earned the best actress award at the Cannes 2024 for her role in Bulgarian filmmaker Konstantin Bojanov’s The Shameless, was joined by her co-star Omara from the Hindi film at the 30th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) where the flick was screened. IBNS-TWF correspondent Souvik Ghosh speaks to the duo on a cosy winter evening.
Excerpts…
Q (to Anasuya): How long did the Cannes award take to sink in?
A. It’s still sinking in (laughs).
Q (to both): Anasuya won the award while Omara could have also clinched it. How do you see this scenario being the co-actors?
Anasuya: It’s just a technicality because the best actress award can be given to only one person but I never felt it as my solo win because the performance is held together beautifully by everyone in the cast. Moreover, we had a phenomenal crew. It’s a truly international co-production with five countries coming together. It was just my beautiful moment of good fortune to win the award. I consider it as the win of both of us (Anasuya and Omara) and the entire cast and crew.
Omara: I think an artist and actor should never be jealous and insecure of someone else’s accomplishment, especially one like that of Anasuya’s. It’s something that should be celebrated. It’s a huge win. She is the first Indian actress to win the award at Cannes. The whole country was celebrating and how could I not.
Q (to Omara): What was your reaction when the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival?
A. I still remember as the end credits rolled, Anasuya and I hugged. Both of us started crying. We were overwhelmed and turned emotional. Actually three of us- me, Anasuya and Konstantine- cried as the audience clapped. It was surreal.
Q (to both): Can you take us through your journey of developing the chemistry onscreen?
Anasuya: We had to really work together because the film is set in a world which seems quite dark and chaotic. We were aware of the fact that these two characters, their love and hope were the light and crux of the film. We knew that it was a big responsibility on both of us and not individually. We had to create it together. So we worked very hard and spent a great deal of time together. We prepared and helped each other.
Omara: We also workshopped together. There was a period of time when we were working on the script, the Hindi dialogues and brainstorming. It was altogether an experience of sharing and acquaintance.
Q. Your director Konstantin Bojanov directed the film despite being a non-speaker of Hindi. How did you two pull off the task?
Anasuya: It was marvellous really to see Konstantin’s process. Though he doesn’t know the language, he knew the story and lived with it for long. He took over 10 years to mount the film. It was a beautiful demonstration of dedication, believing in a story and wanting to tell it.
Since he was a non-speaker of Hindi, he opened up the script to both of us (Anasuya and Omara) and the rest of the cast. He invited everyone into collaboration and there was a great deal of trust. We worked on the screenplay ourselves and tweaked dialogues where it didn’t feel right. Konstantin was the apt captain of the ship to hold the film together in the way he did.
Omara: I really missed Konstantin during the screening (at KIFF). I wish he was here (smiles).
Q (to Anasuya): Did you take any special kind of preparation for the role?
A: I wanted to give whatever I could to the character. I wanted to stand up for the character, dearly love and protect it. There were many things including a great deal of physical training, work on my body and taking care of the mental bit of it.
Q (Anasuya): You started off your career with Anjan Dutt’s Madly Banglaee and then shifted to Mumbai where you worked as a production designer. How did that phase laid the foundation for you?
A. There is a saying that ‘we are the sum total of our experiences’. I didn’t really plan my life out in this way. It wasn’t necessarily a strategy but here I am. I think so many years of working behind the camera taught me invaluable lessons. (IBNS)
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