Raima’s back in the reckoning

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Actress Raima Sen is in a happy space now. Having portrayed some powerful roles on screen, she says that she is happy with the balance she is achieved between Bollywood and Tollywood.

She has emerged as one of those rare Bengali actresses to have made her mark in both the worlds. At present Raima’s flooded with offers from both the film industries and is having a difficult time juggling between the two worlds.
Assuming diverse roles from a hippie to a feisty homemaker, from portraying Tagore’s sister-in-law Kadambari Devi to a budding film costume-designer or else etching out a go-getting journalist or a potter’s naive wife — Raima is just unstoppable when it comes to selecting the right script and making the right kind of noises across the board. But she acknowledges that it was the ace National Award winning filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh’s literary saga Chokher Bali that brought her into prominence for good as an actress. Essaying the character of a subdued, innocent wife Ashalata had actually brought her talent to national attention and placed her in the art-house league. “Rituda has always been my foremost guide and mentor. The body of work I did under his direction is still being appreciated at large,” she raves.
She aims to widen her histrionic range by acting in both period- pieces as well as modern, urban slick-flicks. “Variety is the spice of life,” she says. “Hence, I don’t want to stick to one particular genre or a one-dimensional subject. I’m game to experiment with different types of characters. Even offbeat roles too,” she elaborates.
On the Bollywood front, there are a couple of projects shaping well with meaningful and hard-hitting roles. She will be seen in Tanuja Chandra’s intense love-story Raakh, sharing screenspace with funny man Vir Das (of stand-up comedy and Delhi Belly fame) and actor Rajeev Khandelwal. “Well, this one’s a hard-hitting flick. I play a woman torn between her hubby and her lover. Vir plays my husband and Rajeev my paramour,” she informs.
Set against the backdrop of a small-town, the camera rolled on from Ujjain to Bhopal to frame the shots. Another interesting development is the delayed release of 3 Bachelors, which was filmed a decade ago. “That’s true. Riya and I had acted in this movie together almost 10 years ago. You may see a completely different look of us in the film,” she concedes. And giving them good company in the story is actor Sharman Joshi. Also on the anvil for release is I, Me Aur Main with Bollywood hunk, John Abraham.
The film has a light, entertaining youthful spirit with a fresh, breezy feel to it. It is a mushy romance-drama, directed by debutante Kapil Sharma and also featuring two other leading ladies — Prachi Desai and Chitrangada Singh in the cast.