100 Hours 100 Stars: Prosenjit says commitment to Bengali cinema huge but open to challenging roles in Mumbai

100 Hours 100 Stars: Actor Prosenjit, who has won acclaim for his Bengali films, will be seen more often in Hindi films.

Bengali actor Prosenjit has said that he is open to working in Mumbai in Hindi films. He was speaking as part of the 100 Hours 100 Stars initiative by Fever Network.

Prosenjit spoke to Hindustan Times as part of 100 Hours 100 Stars initiative.

Prosenjit was asked that despite having great contacts in Mumbai (he is the son of ’60s actor Biswajit) having worked with leading directors like Dibakar Banerjee in films like Shanghai and speaking Hindi without an accent, why was he seen so less in Hindi films?

Prosenjit said, “I have been so busy in Kolkata, thanks to my ‘over’ commitment (here), it didn’t cross my mind that I should go and work in Mumbai as well. But today, it is not about Bangla cinema, Marathi cinema, we make Indian cinema. When a Bangla film reaches an Indian platform, people take my name. So my commitment to Bengali cinema was really huge. Then, when I decided to shift myself, I did Shanghai. If someone has a role for me, like what I am offered by Srijit (Mukherji), Kaushik (Ganguly) which are experimental and different -- and take me as an actor (then he would be game). Today, I can’t be part of ‘that run’ to be a star. That should have happened 25 years ago.

“I watch works of all young directors. There are very few (actors) who are willing to take themselves away from their stardom and they (young directors) appreciate that. If in Mumbai someone was to offer me a challenging role, like the role I am playing for Vikramaditya (Motwane; the duo is working on a web series in Hindi, based on true stories from Lucknow, Kolkata and Mumbai), I will wait for such roles. Long ago, when Shoojit was making Madras Cafe, he had offered me the role of the villain, a South Indian character, but I couldn’t do it due to date problems. It is not like I will not work in Hindi films but, yes, I am not in any kind of a race.”

Prosenjit also spoke about how he came to be called ‘Bumba Da’ in the Bengali film industry. Prosenjit said, “I would like to remind all that a childhood picture of mine from the film Chotto Jigyasa (Hrishikesh Mukherjee directed Bengali film) is still seen around. In that film, Bumba was a popular punchline . Also as a child, when my father would come back from his shoots in Mumbai, I would run to him making ‘Boom Boom’ kind of sound in excitement. It was a game between my baba and me. In no time, ‘Bumba’ became my nickname. In Mumbai, filmmakers call me PC, so it is ‘PC sir’.”

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