Start-stop-start — that, in short, describes Chitrangada Singh’s career graph. The actress, who made a highly acclaimed film debut with Sudhir Mishra’s Hazaaron Khwaishen Aisi, went off the radar for more than three years. But after a low-key comeback role in Onir’s Sorry Bhai, she says she’s “greedy” to bite into plum roles, “like a child in a candy shop”.
She already has three films — Dhruv, in which she plays a “wheeler dealer” of black money for politicians; Aur Devdas, in which she is a sensuous, shrewd socialite; and a period film tentatively titled The Nawab, The Nautch Girl and the John Company, where she plays a courtesan. All three are by Mishra.
Aur Devdas, which was to have Shiney Ahuja as Devdas, has “definitely been postponed”, she informs, but is quick to point out that it has nothing to do with the actor’s recent arrest. “This was decided last year itself,” she says.
Talking of Shiney on the sets, she recalls, “He was a bit headstrong and wasn’t very social. But he was not vile in any way, or someone who’d make you uncomfortable.” The news of his arrest was “an absolute shock” for her. She says, “This [incident] was probably affected by a lot of things — how he was feeling at the time, things going on in his personal life perhaps…”