Renuka was empowering me in some strange way: Anasuya Sengupta

 Excerpts from an interview :

Yours is quite an unusual journey from production designer to an award-winning actress

My life is no fairy tale. I was born in a middle-class Bengali family in Kolkata. I graduated in English literature from Jadavpur University and have fond memories of those days spent at JU. Actually, being an actress was never my dream. Initially, I wanted to be a journalist. Later, my plans changed and I found myself doing a role in Anjan Dutt’s feature film Madly Bangalee  in 2009 which was a kind of a musical. I shifted to Mumbai in 2013 after dabbling in theatre for some time. In Mumbai, it was quite difficult to find space, in every sense till I began to work as a production designer in films.

What made you shift to Goa?

I shifted to Goa because after some time in Mumbai, I felt lost and lonely and depressed. I felt I was not really going anywhere and neither was my career. So, with my father’s guidance, I shifted base to Goa and there is where I live and work now with my husband, Yashdeep whose love and involvement in music has stood very well beside my work as an artist. And then the magic of The Shameless happened.

What is the backstory of getting into The Shameless?

A social network friend of mine had told me that one Konstantin Bojanov was looking for some women to cast in his Hindi film The Shameless. In June 2020, Konstantin wrote to me that he was looking forward to casting me in one of the main characters in his feature film The Shameless and though it was a big surprise for me, I accepted it at once. He had seen some of my art work on Instagram and liked them. But when he suggested the acting role, my prompt response was, ‘You will not get a single producer if you cast me in your film.’ But he kept on persuading me and trying to convince me. Then he told me why the constant persuasion when we were shooting in Nepal for two long months.

And what was the reason?

The reason from my side is that I was quite uncertain about a Hindi film being made based on a story on devdasis authored by a White author, William Dalrymple, and to be directed by another White man Konstantin Bojanov which could lead to a hotchpotch of a  film. Konstantin had also once conceived of the story being made into an animation film. When the final decision was made to turn the story into a feature film, Bojanov was firm about me playing Renuka. I have no clue about what made him cast me but for me, it was a magical coincidence. My first audition tape was okayed by Bojanov right away.

What is the gist of the story of The Shameless?

It is a beautiful story about three women belonging to three generations. The senior woman whose name we never know is a traditional devdasi who is struggling while trying to initiate her granddaughter Devika into the profession but who resists it. Renuka is a brash, no-nonsense, smoking-drinking, arrogant sex worker who escapes from a Delhi brothel after killing a police officer. Devika is a teenager played by Omara Shetty with whom Renuka has a relationship. Mita Vashisht plays the grandmother.

How did you work on your role after getting hold of the script?

I had filled every free space in the script with my scribbles and notes. Maybe, the director found it funny. But I had written out a prequel on my character alone. I had fallen in love with this sex worker who had fled from the red light district. Renuka was empowering me in some strange way. I wished my performance would touch the emotions of the audience.

Your character has strong queer shades and you have said that one need not be queer to understand the pain of being queer in mainstream society. But does this not lead to some artifice on the part of your performance?

One needs to feel one with the pain of those who are queer. One needs to have empathy towards everyone as a human being. As an actor, one has to be prepared to portray every kind of character, good, bad, in-between, grey and then only can an actor convince the audience of the circumstances within which a character evolves. All this is possible only through empathy. You don’t have to be queer to fight for equality, you don’t have to be colonised to know that being colonised is pathetic – we just need to be very decent human beings.

After working in Madly Bangalee in 2009, you didn’t get a single opportunity of working in any film. Did this not lead to some sense of loss?

I love my work as a production designer very, very much. Besides, I firmly believe that every creative field of work overlaps with other creative fields. Though I was away from acting all this time, I would act in my mind, in secret. The opportunity came just at the right time and by then I had full command over the entire format of my work, my character and its evolution through the film.

In what role can we expect to see you next? Actor or production designer?

I may do something completely different such as writing short stories or delving into art which I love doing. I wish to act in different kinds of roles in films for the next 10 to 15 years in  languages like Bengali, Hindi, or in Bollywood or international productions. I am not concerned with sectarian divisions in films. But I want to act in characters I believe in, characters I have enjoyed reading about.

Which are your favourite projects as a production designer?

As a production designer, the projects I hold closest to my heart include Sanjeev Sharma’s Saat Uchakkey (2016), starring Manoj Bajpayee and Anupam Kher, and Srijit Mukherji’s Forget Me Not, starring Ali Fazal as part of the Netflix anthology Ray (2021).

Image Credit: Anasuya Sengupta Instagram