Ive been dying to laugh on screen

And now comes a comic role in Cooking with Stella. Do we finally see Seema Biswas laugh out loud?
Ive been dying to laugh on screen,and make others laugh. A lot of directors have told me that I have great comic timing and they would like to do a comedy film with me. Dilip Mehta,brother of Deepa Mehta (with whom I did Water) took me on for Cooking with Stella. Its a sweet and funny film about a cook called Stella who works in the house of a Canadian couple in New Delhi,and runs a neat little business on the side by stealing items. We expect it to release in India shortly.

Are you fun-loving in real life?
Not that I think. Even in school,my teachers would call my mother to say that I was too quiet and serious. But,I do crazy things too like talking to myself. Even when Ive got family visiting my home,I take time out to just talk to myself. Sometimes,I walk while brushing my teeth at night,muttering to myself.

How did you prepare for the role of Stella?
I have never tried to convey external characteristics. I look at a role and think,This is my life,this has happened with me. I work on inner feelings. For Stella,it helped that I had learnt cooking after moving to Mumbai more than 10 years ago. As a child,I would watch my sisters cook and think,What a waste of time. On the sets of Stella,I would use the ingredients for shooting to make real dishes. Once I used a meat cleaver to chop ginger and cut my finger instead.

Then you go back to playing serious parts. Your next Bollywood venture is City of Gold,about mill workers.
Ive wanted to work with Mahesh Manjekar ever since I watched Astitva and Vastav. While narrating the script to me,he became so emotional that I was stunned. He was shaking and completely torn. And I had always thought of him as a tough man!
I play Aai,or mother,whose husband loses her job when the mill shuts down. Shes like the quintessential woman who keeps moving forward despite what happens. When her sons go out of hand or when her daughter gets pregnant,she deals with it very matter-of-factly. The Hindi version will be released in April. When we screened the Marathi trailer in Lower Parel in Mumbai,a huge crowd of mill workers came to see the film. They got very emotional and started telling us how bad the situation is,how they do two jobs to make ends meet.

Tell us about your other film,Red Alert,in which you play a Naxalite.
This film is close to my heart because I am from Assam which has a long history of political movements against the state. Ive never been a political person but I am aware that Naxalism is one of the biggest internal security threats facing India.
Red Alert an important film. I want to be a part of a film that leaves people wondering about the police,the Naxalites and the government. My role is thus a part of an important story. Red Alert does not make a comment on the movement,it merely shows the story of a hapless person who gets trapped into joining the Naxalites. Suniel Shetty plays a man who makes a living by supplying food to people,among them a Naxal group. The Naxals drag him away with them to prevent him from revealing their whereabouts to the cops.

Did your experience playing a dacoit in Bandit Queen come in handy?
Bandit Queen was my first film. After reading the story of Phoolan Devis tough life,I decided that I would give such a strong performance that nobody would dare go and watch the film twice. In Red Alert,my role isnt very big. The film is big and the star cast is bigSuniel Shetty,Naseeruddin Shah,Vinod Khanna,Aashish Vidyarthi,Ayesha Dharker and Makrand Deshpande.

A big star cast and a small role for yourself. Arent you afraid of going unnoticed?
I act to satisfy myself. When I joined NSD to learn acting and my mother came to drop me off in Delhi,she said,We have tremendous faith that you will maintain your dignity and do whatever you are doing with complete focus and honesty. Till today,I carry that responsibility. Thats why I do the roles that I do. Incidentally,my mother Meera Biswas was among the first women on stage in Assam in the 1950s. She even acted alongside me in Water..

Do you think youll ever get another role like Bandit Queen again?
People still remember me as Bandit Queen.. I refuse scripts because they all sound like Bandit Queen. A lot of people compliment me for that film and,unfortunately,most of the time,they are referring to the nude scene. I had used a body double for the scene. She was a young girl and I met her during the shooting. I still feel deeply for her.

While we have actors like Boman Irani doing a variety of character roles,there is almost no woman character actor doing the same thing in Bollywood.
In Hollywood,Iran,Iraq,France and New Zealand,there is a range of roles for female characters where beauty and age dont matter. In Bollywood,thats very rare. So,if I like a script,even if a role is very small,I try to satisfy myself. If I forget myself while reading a script,I take it up.

Your sisters used to press you to get married…
I told them that everybody doesnt get everything. I am single and my large family in Assam is enough to keep me busy.