Biding Time

When the Indo-Italian co-production,Gangor,premiered at the Rome International Film Festival in the last week of October,actor Priyanka Bose could hardly contain her excitement. Not because of the compliments she received after the screening,but because the aspiring actor,who plays the central character in the film,was on the verge of losing the role on more than a couple of occasions. “I was not sure until just days before the shoot,whether I was acting in the film,” says the 27-year old,who essays the role of a tribal woman,Gangor,who gets ostracised by her village in West Bengal’s Purulia district. “I had washed my hands off the project after I didn’t hear from them after the first audition,but months later I received a call from the casting agent to say that they were still keen on me,” continues Bose,who is also the wife of leading musician Paresh Kamath of the sufi-rock band Kailasa. The bi-lingual film (English and Hindi),which has been directed by Italian filmmaker Italo Spinelli is an adaptation of Bengali author Mahashweta Devi’s novel Choleey Ke Peeche.

The Delhi girl,who graduated from Maitreyi College with honours in Sociology,confesses that the tinsel town was always her destination. Bose got her first break in Roshan Abbas’s musical Graffiti,at the age of 18,but soon realised that the stage is a small world. “That’s when I shifted to Mumbai,” says the actor,who has done small roles in Sriram Raghavan’s Johnny Gaddar and also has a short dance number in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s just-released Guzaarish. “The song Udi has been drastically edited,so don’t go hoping to see a lot of me in it,” she laughs. She was also offered a part in Dibakar Banerjee’s LSD,but opted out of it since she was pregnant.

After her shot at international success,Bose is now waiting for an opportunity on home turf. “Rome was a dream. Now it is time for reality check. If there is a good script on offer I am ready to compete in that league to get that role,” she says.