Bengali actor Ritabhari Chakraborty is elated to be part of Papa Buka, Papua New Guinea's first ever submission to the Oscars in the best international feature film category. Directed by Trees Under the Sun fame Bijukumar Damodaran, the film is co-produced by Pa Ranjith via Neelam Productions alongwith Noelene Taula Wunum, Akshay Kumar Parija and Prakash Bare.
Papa Buka is a Tok Pisin-language film which follows an aging war veteran as he guides two Indian historians as they research about Indian soldiers who served alongside British and Australian forces during World War II. Ritabhari plays the role of a historian, Romila Chatterjee, whose quest for history has a personal connection.
"There's not many scripts in the world that can bring India and Papua New Guinea together. These two countries are geographically so apart yet united by their history which was formed due to the war (World War II) that shook the world," Chakraborty told PTI in an interview.
"As an actor working on films for so many years, it is a dream come true. We all want our films to be seen by the Academy. I have been working predominanetly in Bengali films for a while and I don't even remember the last Bengali film which made it to Oscars," the actor added.
Ritabhari, who was intrigued by her character, says: "I have been a history student in Jadavpur University so I had some insight on what a historian is like and what their lives are like since I have read so many books written by them. My character in this film is called Romila and it is not a coincidence because one of the most famous historians from our country is named Romila Thapar. We wanted to reference her, even though my character is not based on her," she said.
She found it interesting that while the film focuses on themes of war and violence, it barely depicts the gruesome events on screen. Her character, Romila, travels to the island to find out the truth of what happened to her grandfather, who never returned after serving in the Second World War.
"The nuances of building a story around our origin are the work of a historian, and that is something we incorporated while also making Romila her own person. Her grandfather never came from the war, her mother never got closure so she had her own history to explore. We find out what happened to her grandfather, and her exploration of history ultimately becomes a personal journey," Ritabhari adds.
The actor, who reunited with the three-time National Award-winning director after their 2018 film Painting Life, said it was challenging to shoot in a foreign land due to language differences.
"Most of the film is in Tok Bisin which is the local language, the crew was Malayali and I am Bengali. I had most of my dialogues in Hindi but working with a crew whose language I didn't know on a film whose language is foreign was challenging," she said.
She praised director Biju as someone well-informed about the issues he is tackling in his movies.
"He is always about the craft, he makes his own cinema, which is not to please anyone. He had his vision. All I could do was get on board with the captain and trust him. He has the kind of sensitivity one needs to have when making films like this one," she said.
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