Koko acts out mom’s life

Some elements of director Aparna Sen’s life as an actor in the seventies and eighties will be revisited by her daughter Konkona Sen in the film Iti Mrinalini.

Directed by Aparna, the film is based on the life of an ageing actor reliving her memories before she decides to commit suicide. Konkona plays the younger version of the actor Mrinalini, while her mother portrays the aged incarnation of the character.

HT Image

“Some parts in the film are taken from my own life,” says the 65-year-old director.

One such scene lifted straight from Sen’s life is when a young Mrinalini is suddenly thrown out of a film. “I was once replaced by a successful actor very early in my career. I was very hurt by this incident. Later on, when the same producer came to me asking for dates for another film, I expressed my feelings before him. The same happens to Konkona in this film and her dialogue is exactly what I had told that producer,” she says.

This would be the second time that Aparna and Konkona are together in a film. The director says she had no choice but to act in the film to make it a casting coup of sorts.

“Using the both of us makes for a very strong casting. Else, we would have to find two people who look alike - one for the older and another for the younger Mrinalini,” she says.

The script of Iti Mrinalini was written along with Ranjan Ghosh - the first time Sen is collaborating with a script-writer. Her last film, The Japanese Wife, was based on a story by author Kunal Basu. pti

Aparna speaks...

On the film
I have observed certain things in life, which I have incorporated in the film. Some parts are from my own life.

On Koko’s role
Using the both of us makes for a very strong casting. Else, we would have to find two people who look alike.