Padma Priya is just back shooting from the USA for a Bengali film Aparajitha (The unbeatable you). Director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury spotted her at the National Awards ceremony and resolved that she and Kamalinee Mukherjee would play the two women based on the story Dui Naari Haathey Torobaari by Sunil Gangopadhyay. “It's about two couples, Kamalinee and I have a problem and she takes vengeance by having a relationship with my husband. I play two age groups one of 17-year-old and then 26-year-old. The treatment of the story and the climax becomes important here. I don't know if I will ever do a Bengali film with such a constrained budget again.” The film has been shot for 27 days in San Francisco, San Jose and Berkeley. The actor has done 40 films so far and says that each film makes one think and feel differently. She doesn't want to do cinema that will make people perceive her in one way and feels that all the films have done their job in their level and capacity.
She adds, “Cinema is a mass medium, its coffee table conversation for all. It's not fair to brand me as an art house artist just because I have done three art movies. These three went to the festival and when they had a release no one went to see. I've never worked in them for an award; I just had the luck going with me. This is my profession and I'm here to make money. Why would I do cinema for artistic reasons, I'd rather do classical dance or theatre?”
The actor is all praise for the cinematographer, Ranjan Palit who made her look ethereal in the film. She says performing for his camera was like being in front of her parents, she was that comfortable. “I always thought if I'd ever strip or kissed on screen it would be for Johnny Depp but after working with Ranjan I dropped my inhibitions. There were right people and the theme around. He made me look so beautiful but I didn't go nude, I just showed my back. We were constrained by the fact that we were making a film with Indian women.” Padma Priya recently saw a French film The names of love and was bowled over by a 14-year-old's work. She says she was ashamed of herself and questioned herself as to what she had done throughout her life, “We don't see what's happening around and are so involved with our box office hits.”
The actor's Malayalam movie Naayika with Sharada, a biopic of a yesteryear actress is getting ready. “They said my left profile looks like her, the idea wasn't to mimic but to get a resemblance. I never put so much make up in my life and I'm glad to have born in this generation. Sharada says that a full three hours would go in dabbing war-paint and they would stay put with those buns and bouffants till 8 pm. Even for weeping scenes I had to look good and she pointed out that the lips should be pursed while weeping. They would ask me to feel shy, more shy and I couldn't blush more,” she quips.
With the biggest hit of the year, Seniors in Malayalam, the actor has bagged six more projects. She goes on to talk about her agenda to learn Spanish and sign her international film, and also travel to Bharatpur to savour the wildlife there.
