The super-versatile and ever-evolving actor Subrat Dutta, is critical of his own acting. “When I watch me once the film is ready, I always feel that I have done it badly. And since it is ever-evolving, especially with the emergence of AI, we have to show our best emotive selves, in a limited close-up frame. The rest will be taken care of by AI,” he adds. As his film Madam Sengupta, is running at the theatres, we speak with him to know about it. Excerpts:
What drew you to your character in Madam Sengupta?
It is like a chhota packet, bada dhamaka. For whatever little time my character is on screen, something or the other is happening. Another thing is that, the makers have used Sukumar Ray’s iconic nonsense verses from Abol Tabol as cues, very smartly. It not only re-interprets the poem but also involves the audience to an extent that even they would wish to be a part of the investigation.
I play Haren Mondal, a grey-shaded cop in Kolkata Police, who is well-designed by the director, Sayantan Ghosal. If you ask me, what made me choose this film, I would say that I trust Sayantan. He chose me as Ajit in Byomkesh, and audiences say that it is one of the best Ajits on screen. Sayantan has a clear vision about the project, about the characters, which makes it extremely easy to work with him. Especially as theatre actors, we often tend to go overboard with the characters, so it’s easy if someone pulls us back.
How do you differentiate acting on stage and in front of the camera, when it comes to the technical aspects?
I have become used to it by now, with sheer practice. In film, the main issue is the continuity, since it is recorded. On stage, improvisations are allowed. On screen, if I do anything wrong, I will have to maintain that throughout the very end. Moreover, since it is made for the big screen, we have to do controlled movements...less is more on screen, but we have to emote in such a way that the audience understands that you are the character that you are playing. You may emote through muscle movements, eye movements, or a particular mannerism, but have to deal with it minutely.
What else is in the pipeline?
I just completed shooting a Hindi project with Mimoh Chakraborty, which we shot in Jaunpur. I have also wrapped up Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy’s Raktabeej 2, and Arjunn Dutta’s Bibi Payra. I have four Hindi projects slated for release, Ki and Ka, opposite Swastika Mukherjee, which is a part of an anthology, Shielditya Moulik’s Charak, Sanjib Dey’s Jagan and a few other films. Audiences will surely get to see me playing some interesting roles.
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