National award-winning Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta, who is now concentrating more on Hindi films, says she won't be giving up Bengali cinema altogether.
"Bengal is a very important seat of cinema for me. I can't even think of giving it all up. Though I am concentrating more on my Bollywood career now, I'll never say no to Bengali films in my lifetime.
I got my name, fame, identity and even my National award from Bengali cinema, " Rituparna, who forayed into Bollywood with "Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh" in 2005, told in an interview.
However, Rituparna's first commmerical Hindi venture was Parto Ghosh's suspense thriller "Teesra Kaun" (2004) with Mithun Chakraborty, Chunky Pandey and Somy Ali. Her success and commitments in the Bengali film industry and in Bangladesh did not allow her to focus on her Hindi film career at that time.
In 2005, she was seen in Chandan Arora's light-hearted "Main, Meri Patni...", which was technically termed as her Bollywood debut. Her portrayal of an educated housewife in the film earned her rave reviews.
She was then seen in box office duds like "Unns - Love...Forever", "Gauri - The Unborn" and "Sirf - Life Looks Greener on the Other Side".
The actress, however, is not upset with her Bollywood ventures not taking off and doesn't shy away from her failure in choosing roles.
"I had no choice initially as an actress to get a break in Bollywood. Moreover, in those days, I was just feeling my way through Bollywood. I almost felt like an intruder, as I was not familiar with the ways of the industry.
"But now I can say I know the pulse of Bollywood as I have a line-up of movies that I have accepted on merit. Now I look at the subject matter of a film first before signing it and then to a substantial and meaty role, " said Rituparna, who has worked in over 50 Bengali movies.
Rituparna says she is going through a transitional phase now.
"My taking to Bollywood films is a transition. I don't want to get confined to only regional cinema as I want to exploit my potential. I want to perform challenging roles in a much more complex sphere like Bollywood.
"Bollywood films are going through a change. Audiences have become more intelligent and I want to reach out to them in different roles through my Bollywood projects. They have woken up to the fact that it is the content of the film that matters, " she quipped.
Known for doing bold scenes in some Bengali movies, Rituparna idolizes former Bollywood diva Dimple Kapadia.
"Dimple-ji could slip into playing any bold role and still be on her own, maintaining her dignity. That's the status I want to achieve in Bollywood, " she said.
Rituparna shared her first National Award for Best Actress with renowned Bengali actress Indrani Haldar for her role in Rituparno Ghosh's "Dahan" in 1998 and recently won the same for Aniruddha Choudhury's Bengali film "Anuranon".
The actress has quite a few Hindi and Bengali films in her kitty right now.
In Bollywood, she will be next seen in Priyadarshan's Hindi version of Iranian film "Children of Heaven", "SRK", "Saab Chai Pani", "Mujhe Rang De", "Love Game", "Mittal versus Mittal", "BBD", "Paroshkar", "Dard-e- Disco" and "Do Not Disturb".
"Trishna", "Mon Amor" and "Piyalir Password" are some of the Bengali projects she has signed on.
Rituparna says she will try her best to "maintain a balance" between the Hindi and Bengali film worlds.
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