Who’s that guy ?

A decade later,Sanyal is shouting Dhan tana with Shahid Kapoor in one of the most-anticipated Bollywood releases of recent times,Vishal Bharadwaj’s Kaminey. He is also being hailed as the surprise package of the film which has established names like Shahid and Priyanka Chopra in it— Amole Gupte,who also stars in the film,feels that he is “the one to look out for”. “You must be kidding me. Did he really say that? Well I’m honoured then,” he beams.

Sanyal’s career,it seems is full of such extremes. He studied,quite incredulously,in a Bengali-medium school in Delhi. “I belong to a Bengali family and my parents wanted me to study in a Bengali medium school. It’s as simple as that,” he says. Indeed,but his initiation to Bollywood was anything but simple. “I had auditioned for the Aamir Khan production Delhi Belly,unfortunately I was not selected for a role in it. However,the casting director,Honey,kept me in mind and approached me for Kaminey. I auditioned for it and waited. Nothing happened,so I went to the US as a part of Tim Supple’s theatre production,A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When I casually called Honey from the US to enquire about latest developments he informed me that Vishal is desperately looking for me and I am on,” he says.

Eventually,Sanyal was cast as Mikhail in this “caper” film and was asked by director Vishal Bharadwaj to build a rapport with his co-star Shahid Kapur. “I share most of my scenes with him and we ended up being good friends,” says Sanyal. His other famous co-star,Priyanka Chopra,is a livewire,feels Sanyal. “Though I don’t that many scenes with her,it was quite interesting watching her work. She is so incredibly edgy and spontaneous,” he says.

Sanyal,has some interesting insights about his director’s approach too. “He is a musical person and that comes through in his work. He would explain scenes according to notes. I was having problems enacting a scene which was physically demanding. I was having trouble breathing,Vishal came up to me and taught a breathing exercise which he said Lataji (Mangeshkar) taught him,” he smiles.

The impending release of his debut film has him in knots,he confesses. “I have only seen the rough cut of the film. I will see the whole film only in the theatre with the audience and I will pay for my ticket,” he adds. Future is still a vague word for him,he says. “My friends have asked me to take it easy. Which is why I have only signed one film with Bejoy Nambiar (who is a winner of a filmmaking competition in a private channel) opposite Dev D’s Kalki,” he signs off.