This story is from November 09, 2010

Chandan Roy in 'Midnight's Children'

Chandan Roy in 'Midnight's Children'
The actor talks to TOI about burning themidnight oil to read the Rushdie novel, his transition from���������Kaminey��������� to ���������F.A.L.T.U.��������� and how he handlescontroversies.Chandan Roy Sanyal has three films up for release in the next two months. And if all goes well, he might be roped in for Deepa Mehta���������s ���������Midnight���������s Children��������� as well as Vimukthi Jayasundara���������s ���������Mushroom���������. The Sri Lankan director is supposed to meet him in Mumbai this week before he comes down to Kolkata to begin shooting for his film.Though Chandan isn���������t ready to talk about his tryst with Mehta���������s adaptation of Salman Rushdie���������s ���������MC���������, sources say that he has been in consideration for playing the role of Joseph D���������Costa ��������� a hospital porter, a Communist political radical and the Most Wanted man by the Indian police. D���������Costa is also the sweetheart of Mary Pereira, a character that will be essayed by Seema Biswas in the Deepa Mehta film. Says a source, ���������Chandan had been introduced to Uma Da Cunha at the Munich International Film Festival. It was Uma who had taken an interview of Chandan on camera and passed it on to Deepa. Subsequently, the director sent an e-mail to Chandan explaining the role. Chandan, on his part, has sought the advice of English theatre and opera director Tim Supple regarding this project.
Deepa had come down to Mumbai on October 15. Unfortunately, Chandan was in Mauritius then and, hence, couldn���������t meet up with her. Shooting for the film will happen in Sri Lanka next year.���������Chandan, on his part, has his lips sealed on the Mehta movie. ���������I have been a huge admirer of Deepa���������s movies. I loved her ���������Earth��������� and still can���������t forget a scene where Aamir Khan had so much of rage and revenge in his eyes. I���������ve just started reading ���������MC��������� and can���������t talk about the project.���������Butwhat Chandan can speak about right now is that he has had talks VimukthiJayasundara regarding the director���������s Bengali debut. ���������It���������s therole of an architect. I���������ve spoken to Vimukthi over the phone and will bemeeting him shortly. I would love to come down to shoot in Kolkata. I had wantedto do Sujoy Ghosh���������s ���������Kahaani���������. Unfortunately, that neverhappened. If I do Vimukthi���������s film, it will be a big healer for me. Aftermaking my debut in ���������Mahanagar@Kolkata���������, I would love to be back toKolkata with something to be proud of. Recently, when Roland Joff������ wasin Mumbai, I had had the privilege of meeting him. It might sound surprisingbut, fact is, Roland Joff������ and I actually discussed the theory ofrelativity. I am told that Abhay Deol has been cast in his���������Singularity��������� though I haven���������t been officiallybriefed about it. Eitherway, I cherish my meeting with Joff������ anddon���������t mind losing to Abhay, if that���������s the case,��������� saysChandan.Meanwhile, Chandan���������s performance as ageek-turned-actor in ���������F.A.L.T.U.��������� has already been appreciated byhis co-stars Arshad Warsi and Ritiesh Deshmukh. ���������Ritiesh is my industryguide. With ���������F.A.L.T.U.���������, I am entering a whole new territory. Wehad a lovely time shooting in Mauritius. From architecture to movies, we spokeabout anything and everything under the sun. Incidentally, this film has me intwo looks. When I attended the Diwali party at Vashu Bhagnani���������s house, Ibumped into writer Sameer Sharma. He said he couldn���������t recognize me in therushes of the movie since my two looks are so distinctly different in the movie.When I heard this, I became very nostalgic. It was the same thing that hadhappened when I had done ���������Kaminey���������. Vishal Bhardwaj said that he hadshown the film to director Saurabh Narang, who couldn���������t recognize me atall in the movie! Acting, for me, requires that kind of a transformation, whereI completely morph into another character so much so that people recognize mycharacter and not me per se,��������� Chandan adds.While being in themovie business has such thrills, Chandan has already got a taste of how trickythings can get in tinsel town. Recently, he faced a huge dilemma during themaking of ���������Tell Me Oh Khuda��������� when the original director of the film,Mayur Puri, had a fall-out with producer Hema Malini. ���������I make friendspretty easily. Mayur was so impressed with my work in ���������Kaminey��������� thathe had actually fought with all and sundry to cast me in this movie. He took theinitiative to convince everyone to cast me in a part which acts as a comicrelief in the movie. I am so indebted to him for his support. With Hemaji, Ihave bonded very well. I make friends very quickly and have gelled well withEsha Deol, who is my co-star in the movie. Even recently, Hemaji sent me cashewsand fruits as Diwali gifts with a handwritten note from her end. I havecarefully kept that note on me because her wishes mean a lot to my career. WhenMayur and Hemaji had their own differences, both of them knew that Iwouldn���������t be able to take a stand. I had to continue shooting for the filmsince I was committed to it,��������� he explains.As professionalactors, life perhaps has to go on and being neutral is the most judicious andyet the toughest thing to do. ���������Life teaches us how to deal with differentcircumstances. Life could get slow for you but you can���������t hang your boots.So, I went on to shoot for ���������Love You To Death��������� where I play ahusband who wants to kill his wife for money.���������Considering thathe plays a scared boyfriend in an ad and a man ready to kill his wife for money,what���������s his real life take on the power equation of a man in arelationship? Chandan pauses briefly to conclude by saying, ���������I like womenwho are in power and in control. While joote padenge joote might be takingthings to a different extreme, in real life a power woman doesn���������tintimidate my male ego at all. Power women, for me, are verysexy!���������Follow us on Twitter for more stories
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