Sameera Reddy and Mithun Chakraborty share experience of working with Buddhadeb Dasgputa

Sameera Reddy had the privilege of working in two Bengali films Ami Yasin Ar Madhubala in 2007 and Kalpurush in 2008.

“Kalpurush changed my attitude to my career and my self-esteem. Please remember I was a glamorous actress in Mumbai. I had done Sanjay Gupta’s Musafir. I wanted to know how Buddhada thought of me in the role of Supriya, Rahul Bose’s unhappy wife in Kalpurush. It needs a visionary filmmaker to see an actor in a role that seems very removed from her real personality or her on-screen image.”

Did Sameera ask the filmmaker why he thought of her ? “Not really. Buddhada was a man of few words. He hardly spoke. You can see the importance of silence in his cinema. There are long stretches of no dialogue in his films.There were beautiful unspoken passages between his characters. I shared a mentor-pupil relationship with him. I would strain to hear when he talked. He said so little, it was like a treat when he spoke,” Sameera laughs , remembering the standing ovation Kalpursh got in Cannes.

“I got goosebumps when the film received a standing ovation in Cannes. I get goosebumps now thinking about it. He was a big favourite among international audiences. And Kalpurush is regarded among his finest works.I am so proud to be part of it.”

Was the Bengali language a problem for Sameera? “Not at all. In fact recently my husband asked me what was it like to work in cinema in so many languages and I told him Bengali was the easiest to learn, maybe because Buddhada was such a great teacher. He would sit me down, coach me in the nuances of Bangla. From him, I learnt about the food, the culture of Bengal and how Bengali women wore their saree.”

As for her other film with Dasgupta Ami, Yasin Ar Amar Madhubala Sameera says, “That was a much lighter film in tone. It was about Prosenjeet Chatterjee and his friend (Amitabh Bhattacharya) becoming fascinated by my character. I learnt a lot more in Kalpurush.

But it was because of Ami, Yasin Ar Amar Madhubala that Buddhada came to me for Kalpurush, That he found it worth his while to repeat me within a year said something about my abilities as actor. Buddhada affirmed my faith in myself. For that I will be always grateful. I did stay in touch with him . But he wasn’t somebody I could think of calling for a casual chat. One doesn’t gossip with a genius.”

Bangla avant-grade director Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s death has affected Mithun Chakraborty also profoundly. “As you know I don’t speak to the media at all nowadays. Not because I don’t respect the media. But because I’ve nothing to say. But Buddhadeb Dasgputa’s passing away prodded my memory of working with him. So when you called I had speak to you. I have to tell my film with him Tahader Katha where I played a freedom fighter was a unique learning experience for me,” says Mithunda about the director who seldom approached actors in Mumbai for his cinema.

“With me he knew he could come any time. He had that much confidence in me. I was a superstar in Mumbai when he approached me. There was no money in doing Tahader Katha. I did it for peanuts. We all stayed together in a circuit house in a small town. The charge per room was six rupees. But there are some films one does for reasons other than money,” says the actor emotionally.

Dwelling on the uniqueness of working with the Maestro, Mithunda said, “He shot his film in a style I have not seen in any other filmmaker. His camera range would include long-shots, mid-shots and closeup sometimes in the same scene so that we were looking at a frame not as cinema but how it looked in life. His use of wide-angle lenses to encompass all the characters and their emotions in one frame was something I never saw again in any filmmaker.”

Sighs Mithunda, “I wish I got to work with Buddhadebda more. But such is life. I’ve always shared a unique relationship with the Bengali masters be it Mrinalda (Sen), Buddhadebda or Rituparno Ghosh. My God! I’ve worked with best of them in Bengal except Satyajit Ray who passed away before I came in. Buddhadebda always said I was a brilliant actor. It was gracious of him to see me as capable of communicating his vision. I won my second National Award for Best Actor for Tahader Katha. I had won my first National award for Mrigayaa which was also directed by a Bengali master Mrinal Sen.”

Nawazuddin Siddiqui feels privileged to have worked with Buddhadeb Daspupta in one of his last films.

“When he offered me Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa I accepted it without a second thought. It isn’t every day that one gets a chance to work with a director with such a unique vision. Buddhada was one of the filmmakers I respected the most as I studied to be an actor at the NSD. His films like Andhi Gali and Tahader Katha are classics of modern cinema,” says Nawaz.

On receiving the offer to play the titular role in Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa Nawaz says, “It was Buddhada and it was in Hindi. He hardly made films in Hindi. I can only remember Pavan Maholtra in Bagh Bahadur. I quickly said yes. No money was discussed. There are some films that one does for just the satisfaction of being an actor. Mithunda did hardcore mainstream Hindi cinema and still found time to do Buddhada’s Tahader Katha and Kalpurush. Money, one can get elsewhere. But the satisfaction of working with a director like Buddhada is priceless.”

Nawaz found Dasgupta’s style unique. “He did these long trolley shots, really lengthy shots, where he captured characters simultaneously in long-shots and close-ups. The end-result was unique. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

After Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa was complete, Nawaz met the director when he came to Mumbai to sell the film. “Back then there were no buyers for a film like Anwar ka Ajab Kissa. Thank God for the OTT platform, people were finally able to see this extraordinary film last year.”

Adds actor Chandan Roy Sanyal, “Buddhada was very pivotal in my life. I had the greatest honour of doing his last two films Tope and Urojahaj and was supposed to do his next too.

I grew up watching his films in a Bengali household in Delhi. He was a filmmaker in league with the greatest in Bengal. I have no words to describe his loss and how his presence shaped me as an artist. I have the qualification every actor would love to have: a Buddhadeb actor.”