Swastika Mukherjee and Anirban Chakrabarti on their film Bibi Payra
We never expected actors Swastika Mukherjee and Anirban Chakrabarti, who share such an easy camaraderie, to spew such venom at each other and portray such a vile couple on screen in Arjunn Dutta’s Bibi Payra. As the film is running in theatres, Swastika and Anirban sit to dissect their characters, Shiuli and Jagannath, and more. Excerpts:
Could you give us insights into your characters?
Swastika: Let’s swap and tell about our onscreen partners. Jagannath comes from a lower-middle-class background, and the way he has thought of leading his life, he couldn’t quite do that, though he is trying his best every day. Their relationship is sometimes like a married couple, and sometimes not. I think it’s more of a functional marriage. Sometimes, the line between love, dependency, and responsibility becomes truly blurry. He’s a little crazy, too.
Anirban: Shiuli, Jagannath’s wife, tries to run the household deftly but at times messes it up. She has a crazy streak, too. Suppose she is doing something but loses her focus midway, and there is a blunder. Not that she does that intentionally, but it just happens. And here’s what irritates Jagannath, who is already frustrated with his life. They are not enemies, but they aren’t very friendly either. Trying to fit into the defined roles of a marriage, they kind of never got the scope of becoming partners.
Swastika, this is your third film with Arjunn, after Guldasta and Shrimati. What made you choose the character?
I never got to play a character like Shiuli, who is voiceless, has no opinion, and belongs to a lower-middleclass family. Nobody is asking Shiuli to have any kind of conversation. So, this was a first for me. And I don’t want to repeat myself. And I wanted to be cast opposite Anirban for the longest time. And stories like these need to be told!
There was a lot of buzz about Anirban and you when the first pictures of the film made it to social media, and now that you are sitting together for the interviews, what are the feelings like?
Swastika: I strictly wanted to give joint interviews with Anirban, more so because I wanted the audience to enjoy the stark differences on and off screen. And honestly, when you sit down for interviews, we get to know each other a lot more, which isn’t possible during the shoot, because we are always pressed against time. Also, learning how Anirban is perceiving a character and applying it in my life, even that exchange is very fulfilling.
Anirban: But one thing that I would like to add here: whatever the audience might speculate, the film will topple everything. For sure!
Swastika, over the years you’ve taken on roles with vastly different looks—glamorous, de-glamourised, and even older characters. Does your on-screen appearance still matter to you?
I couldn’t have done Bibi Payra if that mattered. I was 85 kg during this film. I had gone through surgery, a lot of hormonal changes and didn’t feel like it so much back then. But now, after losing weight, I realise I was fat then. When Arjun came to me with the role, he said that you would fit into Shiuli’s character because you are in the right shape for her. And that is also a point of discussion in the film—why Shiuli is not, or cannot be, like Jhuma, the character played by Paoli Dam.
Anirban, since no one has experimented with your look a lot, what do you think would be a groundbreaking look for you?
Honestly, physical appearance doesn’t matter to me a lot. When I take up a character, how he looks, sits, talks, or walks isn’t the first thing that comes to my mind. What primarily comes to my mind is how that person is. During the process of creating the traits that come to me naturally, I follow that. If the director or the look designer suggests something, I am definitely game for that.
Once, in a Bengali adaptation of Adhe Adhure, it happened that I played six characters without changing any look or modulating my voice. This was challenging for me, but I really enjoyed doing it, and the audience appreciated it too.
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