‘I am playing a superstar for the first time’

I play Arun Chatterjee,the reigning superstar of the Bengali film industry. People say and he also believes that he is the industry. It is a very complex character that demanded me to essay three layers within a single man.

One is Arun Chatterjee,the man behind the superstar. The second is Arun Chatterjee,the superstar. The third one is the superstar he is playing in Aajker Nayak,the film-within-the-film directed by Shubhobroto Mitra,an aspiring director who wants to remake Satyajit Ray’s Nayak (1966). He is a first-time director. Shubhobroto Mitra played by Indraneil Sengupta,has a different take on the star,the actor and the man.

Did you discover any autobiographical elements in the character you could identify with while essaying Arun Chatterjee?

Yes,of course. It would be dishonest to say that this is a fictitious character that does not bear any resemblance to my real-life status as a star in Bengali cinema. This pertains specially to the ‘blackness’ that attaches to a superstar through word-of-mouth,gossip,yellow journals and so on. It is the director’s tribute to Ray’s Nayak 43 years after it was made. Prosenjit,the star,has been the victim of stories floating around for more than 20 years. The comments that are made in the film on Arun Chatterjee are identical with comments made about Prosenjit in real-life. For example,it has been said that I have tried to create a monopoly by crushing newcomers who wish to enter Bengali films. This is not true. But a time comes when you are no longer interested in refuting these accusations. They are part of the starry baggage you carry with you.

Did you try to emulate the character of Arindam Mukherjee played by Uttam Kumar in Nayak in the segment where you are enacting a superstar in Aajker Nayak,the film-within-the-film or did you distance yourself from it to make it your personal statement?

I had to consciously design my performance in a way that would be very different from Uttam Kumar’s portrayal of a superstar,which he played when he was himself a superstar. A superstar in the 1960s had a very different lifestyle from a superstar today.

The superstar reflected in Nayak,in 1966,created a world of his imagination and lived within it,insulated from the real world outside the world of his creation. The superstar of today,I believe,has his feet firmly planted in the ground. He is a more normal human being than his predecessor was.

Stars do not live in a magic world any more. We are flexible to the demands life makes on us though the limitations to occupying public space still remains a road-block. Our responsibility neither begins nor ends with the release and run of a film. We participate in pre-release talk shows on television and radio,live appearances,the works. This brings us closer to our audience and fans and helps keep our heads in the right place. We cannot afford to move around wearing that imaginary halo around our heads. I played the part keeping these in mind.

In fact,there is a dialogue in the film where Arun Chatterjee says that he is the industry but three flops in a row will wipe him off at one stroke.

That is what superstardom is all about and that is what I have tried to put into the character.

What happens to the ‘blackness’ and ‘whiteness’ of the two main characters – the director and the superstar?

That would be giving the story away that I am not supposed to do. Suffice to say that it is Srinandita who,while working with the superstar,discovers that he is more normal than he is made out to be by the media,his friends,his colleagues in the industry. She discovers through her interaction with the superstar within and without the shooting lights,that Arun Chatterjee as a man and a superstar has been more sinned against than sinning.

This makes her look at her lover from a different perspective – is Shubhobroto really what he appears to be? Is or isn’t he exploiting his relationship with his girlfriend so that his film gets the success and the fame he is seeking? Is he,by any chance,trying to capitalise on his girlfriend’s teenage crush on the superhero by almost pushing her to him?

These are questions the film will raise from Srinandita’s point of view. I enjoyed playing Arun Chatterjee. It is really quite different from what I have done so far.