Indrani: No commercial B'wood

The Bengali actress feels that Bollywood completely lacks a classical influence

Bengali cinema's National Award winning actress Indrani Halder is going seriously mainstream with Sony TV's new soap Sujata but doesn't want anything to do with commercial films.

Indrani, who plays the protagonist in Sony TV's new soap Sujata that debuted Monday, says, "Commercial Bengali films are more influenced by south Indian films and not by Bollywood".

But she would rather not have anything to do with any of them.

"I prefer working in alternate Bengali cinema. Those films offer a huge range of characters to play, are more serious and give a social message," Indrani told IANS.

The actress, who won a National Award for her scintillating performance in Rituparno Ghosh's Dahan (1997), says she is no longer interested in just dancing around trees on screen.

"I did run around trees, danced and did such roles in the beginning of my career. But it has been a while since I have been a part of the industry and I wish to do more quality cinema," Indrani, who earlier appeared on the small screen earlier on Sony TV's Maa Shakti, said during a recent visit to launch her new show.

Asked if she wanted to foray into commercial Hindi cinema, she said she had already done three to four Bollywood films in the past but didn't have any exciting offers now. Her earlier Hindi films include Fakir and Hamari Shaadi.

"I am ready to do a role which has a certain amount of sensitivity and gives a message to the audience and, most importantly, the character that I play should have a significant participation in the story," Indrani said.

If given a chance, she would have loved to play Shefali Shah's role in Subhash Ghai's Black And White.

The actress feels that Bollywood films are not tapping Indian classics enough for their scripts.

"A number of Bengali films are based on classic books. In fact, we are also now using stories by present day authors. But Bollywood films lag behind in this aspect," she pointed out.

"Only a few films such as Pinjar, Parineeta and Devdas have been based on books. Since Hindi films have a larger audience, it makes all the more sense to use a book's story in a film as people will get familiar with regional literature without even reading it."

In Sujata, she plays a submissive woman who is dominated by her husband and children.

"Sujata is very unlike me. She is not a very confident person whereas I am a bold and outspoken woman," she said.

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