Rajnandini Paul & Srish Chatterjee on their film Oh! Lovely

Oh! Lovely, directed by veteran director Haranath Chakraborty, is not just a romantic comedy, but an out-and-out family drama. Starring Rajnandini Paul Srish Chatterjee, Kharaj Mukherjee and Laboni Sarkar in the lead roles, TMC MLA Madan Mitra, debuted as an actor in this film. As the film released at the theatres, we spoke to the young, dynamic and new onscreen couple Rajnandini and Srish on the film and more.

Srish, How do you feel about debuting as a lead in a Bengali film?

It was amazing that I was finally able to work in my mother tongue (he has played a small role in a Hindi project), and I feel blessed to work with Haranath Chakraborty and producer Sandip Sathi. People don’t usually take the risk to launch new faces, but this film had new faces and I am glad that film happened. 

Did you ever find it difficult to match the mentality or way of acting of such senior actors like Laboni Sarkar or Kharaj Mukherjee?

Rajnandini: I think it is a blessing for us newcomers that we receive immense support from the industry seniors, when working together. The amount of support and respect is very inspiring for us, because at some point we would be seniors as well. It’s a very noteworthy thing that we are learning from our seniors is the amount of acceptance they have for the newcomers. I feel in this industry, our seniors are our biggest cheerleaders. 

Srish: For me, it’s specifically so, because it is my first film, and I think it’s amazing to get such an experience in the very first film, and we have a lot of good stories to share with our juniors.

How does it feel to be in the same profession as your mothers?

Rajnandini (Indrani Dutta’s daughter): I agree with what Srish says. But I would also like to mention that I started out all by myself. Though I was launched by one of the biggest industry stalwarts, Prosenjit Chatterjee because he happened to know my mom, I got the role in Uronchondi only after I auditioned for it. So it was no cakewalk. I still go for auditions, meetings that don’t work out. But yes, one thing that my mom has taught me is to take criticisms positively, to understand where the loopholes are, but that should not overbearingly bother me.  

Srish (Debjani Chatterjee’s son): I feel great, but I haven’t yet asked my mom how she feels. I think she feels great too. Carry forwarding the professional legacy of your previous generation always feels great.  

Upcoming works?

Rajnandini: I have a web series with Ritwick Chakraborty called Mr Koliketa on Hoichoi, I have Sampurna 2, I have four movies with Eskay Production House, two with Anshuman Pratyush and two with Sayantan Ghosal, and one of those is Saralakkha Holmes.

Srish: I have started shooting for Anik Dutta’s next, Joto Kando Kolkatay and next year I have a few works coming up that I can disclose later.