Nabin Chandra Das may have been credited with the discovery of rosogolla, the sweet. However, Rosogolla, the Bengali film -- that released on December 21 last year and is running to packed houses -- has discovered Abantika Biswas, the actress. A 17-year-old suburb girl, who, in her childhood, used to badger her mother for breaking open the TV set at home and put her inside so that she could act in the films being telecast, has caught the imagination of many with her spontaneous acting skills before the camera.
Despite being in the same frame as seasoned actors including Bidipta Chakraborty, Kharaj Mukherjee, Aparajit Auddy and Rajatava Datta, both Abantika and her co-actor Ujaan Ganguly have managed to hold their own with their effortless performance. The pressure to perform well was even more so on Abantika since she wasn’t the initial choice for the role. “Though the director was keen on casting me, there were many in the race to be Khirodmani on screen. It was only after a wait of one and a half years that I finally got selected. But now when I see people praising my act, I feel the wait was worth it," says the bubbly teenager, dressed in an anti-fit, blue maxi dress and a brown cardigan.
Indeed, the road to fame has not been easy for Abantika, who is now studying in Class XI. Hailing from New Barrackpore, a suburb in the North 24 Parganas district, the chirpy girl had wanted to be an actor since age three. “I used to ask my mother to put in inside the television set, since I thought that’s the only way to get into that world of magic fantasy,” giggles the newcomer, whose love for acting stemmed from the bedtime stories that her mother used to read to her. “I always imagined if I could be Cinderalla, Rapunzel or Snow White and gradually I realised that acting could fulfil my dreams,” tells the young actor, whose idol is actor Sohini Sarkar.
But the journey so far has not been a bed of roses for this downtown girl with no film background or connections. After many an attempt, she gained a toehold in the industry with a couple of child modelling assignments in 2004-5. Thereafter she straddled between advertisements and a few roles as a child artiste in Bengali tele series and telefilms including Bama Khyapa, Probahini E Samai, Ogo Bodhu Shundori and Ki Ashai Badhi Khela Ghar, till Rosogolla happened.
So, has life changed after Rosogolla’s success? “A little, if I may say so. It feels great when people shower praises but I still commute by metro and most cannot yet recognise me. I have a long way to go and... ,” she breaks out in laughter and adds, “I haven’t had the time to attend school for a long time now, will have to make up heavily to bridge the gap”. With offers trickling in, we feel, the biggest challenge for Abantika now, will be to balance work and studies.