I see Rabindranath Tagore more as a friend: Parambrata Chatterjee

The actor, who will be seen playing Rabindranath Tagore in Suman Ghosh's film Kadambari, says he does not believe in giving the Bard a demigod status.

Actor Parambrata Chatterjee, who plays Rabindranath Tagore in Suman Ghosh's film Kadambari, says he identifies with the Nobel laureate more as a friend. That's one of the reasons why he doesn't believe in giving the Bard a demigod status.

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"I have grown up on Rabindranath; on his works, songs and poems. I don't like to institutionalise him. I consider Tagore more as a friend, who is there in times of need. I don't believe in putting him on a pedestal as a demigod. That is not the way I was taught Rabindranath," says the Kahaani actor.

The actor, who will be seen in Oscar Award-winning director Jeffrey D Brown's Sold, says he read a few of Tagore's works from his early years before starting the film's shoot.

"I read some of his works written in his early years, because they reflected his state of mind and the kind of person he was. As far as playing Rabindranath was concerned, I did not approach it as playing the Bard. I looked at it as someone in his 20s, who was from the 19th century and came from an elite household in Kolkata. He wanted to do a lot of things. He primarily wanted to write poetry and found a friend, companion, muse and inspiration in Kadambari, who happened to be his elder brother, Jyotirindranath Tagore's wife. When Suman da asked me how I wanted to deal with the character, I told him different people have different notions about Tagore. So, I would go with my idea," says Parambrata, who is in Bangladesh to shoot for the Bengali film, Bhayonkor Sundor, where he plays a hotel employee.

Ask him how he adapted to the body language of a young Tagore, and he says, "The moment you get into that costume, put on make-up and the moustache, you automatically get into the skin of the character."

The film also sees Parambrata and Konkona Sen Sharma, who plays Kadambari, sharing screen space after a long time. The two were last seen in Rituparno Ghosh's Dosar (2006), where they had just one scene together. "It's not always that you get to discuss world politics, cinema, art and literature on the set of a film. Konkona, Suman da, Kaushik da (Kaushik Sen) and I had a nice time on the set," Param says.