Riding HIGH

This Bengali boy is no novice when it comes to acting. A product of the Delhi theatre circuit,Sanyal has acted in 22 plays so far,and three months ago even directed a musical called Chugad Dham’s Symphony in Hindi based on Bertolt Brecht’s play Rise and Fall of the City Mahogany. Making the transition from stage to film wasn’t easy,and Sanyal went through a series of rejections before landing that one role that would be a game changer for him. “I had auditioned for Delhi Belly and Delhi 6. But things did not materialise,” he sighs. In April last year he received a call for the Delhi auditions for Kaminey while Sanyal was busy with various stage performances of a British production,Midsummer Nights Dream. “When I arrived for the auditions I was given a quick brief about my character who was a psychotic drug addict. I did the audition and forgot about it,” he says. He left for San Francisco and three months later got in touch with his agent who told him Vishal Bharadwaj was very impressed with his performance. Sanyal caught a flight to Mumbai the next day,and met Bharadwaj for the first time on the sets. “He told me the importance of Shahid Kapur and my character to the story.” The next few days were spent bonding with Kapur on the sets. Nowadays,Sanyal is recuperating with from a slip disk injury. “This injury has kept me grounded. Once I recover,I will hound people and look for more work.”