F E AT U R E
van’s biopic Gour Hari Dastaan - The Freedom File,
on the real-life Oriya freedom fighter Gour Hari Das,
was the first movie she had signed after her son Haroon was born. Konkona was surprised when she was
offered the role of a much older lady, Gour Hari Das’
65-year-old wife Laxmi Das. “The challenge was to play
someone double my age. The movie had an excellent
cast and crew. Plus, we had a brilliant cast in the form
of Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, Tannishtha Chatterjee,
Saurabh Shukla.” But despite such stellar names, the
movie failed to perform at the box-office. “It’s tough to
say what went wrong. It’s all about how the audience
responds. Some films work, some don’t. Every film has
its own destiny.” She reveals it was great working with
husband Ranvir. “We had a lovely time on the set. It was
an easy and quick shoot.” Few days back, Ranvir and
she took to Twitter to announce their separation. Both
of them also conveyed their decision to co-parent their
four-year-old son. Probe her further about that issue and
she says succinctly, “We wanted to announce it once
and for all formally. Otherwise, there is a lot of unnecessary speculative writing that takes place. We wanted
a public platform to announce it. That’s all that I have
to say about this subject.” Motherhood, she says, has
not changed her as a person. “My values, ethics and
worldview remain the same. But there’s a certain depth
in my perspective now. You get to explore a new aspect
of life post motherhood. I’m more patient now. Though
I sleep a little less than I used to,” she laughs. Mention her mother, veteran Bengali filmmaker and actress
Aparna Sen and she says, “We’ve always been more
like friends. My upbringing has been liberal, progressive and bohemian. Even today I can tell her things with
ease that I’d think twice about before telling people my
age. We regard each other as individuals and then as
mother and daughter.” The mother-daughter duo has
worked in acclaimed projects like Mr. & Mrs. Iyer which
won Konkona a National Film Award for Best Actress.
“The preparation in Mr & Mrs Iyer was so thorough that
it was a breeze to shoot. All of us knew exactly what we
were doing. She is a hard taskmaster and has tremendous energy. Her scripts are well-written, researched
and has fleshed out characters. We have occasional
hiccups or arguments which may or may not spill over
to work but those are minor.” She even reveals that they
were contemplating a Mr & Mrs Iyer sequel but for various reasons that didn’t take off. She reveals that they
recently finished an 82-minute film Saari Raat together.
It was part of Zee’s Peace Project, which aims to bring
together filmmakers, cultural exponents and thought
leaders of India and Pakistan on a platform to facilitate
peace and harmony. Along with Konkona, it also starred
Anjan Dutt and Rittwik Chakraborty. It was showcased
at film festivals including the Washington DC South
Asian Film Festival this September. Konkona has even
donned the hat of a scriptwriter with Death In A Gunj and
hopes to turn director with her first screenplay. “It’s dif-
ficult to raise funds for a non-mainstream movie plus It’s
going to be a long and difficult journey.” She had three
Bengali releases this year. “I’d rather do a good Bengali
film rather than a mediocre Hindi one. I did Saibal Mitra’s Shajarur Kanta (The Porcupine’s Quill) based on
a Byomkesh Bakshi story. Suman Ghosh’s Kadambari
has been satisfying. We even had a screening at the
Parliament. It’s about Kadambari Devi, Rabindranath
Tagore’s sister-in-law, who was his muse. They had a
questioned and commented upon relationship and she
committed suicide four months after Tagore got married.
The third one is Suman Mukhopadhyay’s Shesher Kobita opposite Rahul Bose, an adaptation of Tagore’s iconic
novel of the same name. All three have been received.”
19 | BOOM