Exclusive! Paoli on ensemble cast: It is Arindamda’s job to make his characters stand out. I will only take the credit for good work

Paoli’s character Sulochona in Arindam Sil’s Byomkesh Hotyamancha is being praised by critics. The Byomkesh film is based on an incomplete work, Bishupal Bodh, of Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. Director Arindam Sil and scriptwriter Padmanabha Dasgupta developed most of the characters and Sulochona is one of them. Abit Chatterjee, Sohini Sarkar, Suhotra Mukhopadhyay, Arna Mukhopadhyay and others-starrer Byomkesh Hotyamancha was released on August 11. Soon after the release, The Great Indian Murder-actress Paoli talks about her love for Byomkesh, her experience with an ensemble cast and a lot more.

This is your first work with Arindam Sil. How was your experience?

Byomkesh is a good franchise and it is an amazing team. I grew up reading and watching Byomkesh. For Bengalis, he is probably the ideal man. He stands for truth and honesty. He symbolises the traditions and ethos we are born and brought up with.

Meanwhile, Arindamda and I wanted to work together for years. He offered me a character in his first film. Finally, I am here. We worked together on a Byomkesh. As they say, ‘Sabar ka phal meetha hota hai’.

With Arindamda, we did not stick to the script. We improvised and he gave me that liberty. He has every quality of a good director. My character Sulochona has many shades – she is a theatre actress and she has been interacting with people in her personal and social life. I, as Sulochona, am acting simultaneously on stage and in film. It is a little like Natoker Moto. But the films are different.

Which Byomkesh is your favourite?

Abir and Rajit Kapur. The former for being contemporary and the latter for all the nostalgia.

Byomkesh is larger than life and iconic character. Many actors have portrayed him on screen. It is also aesthetically pleasing. There is a certain type of love attached to it. And this gets reflected at the box office. The films are a hit. In a literary adaptation, the audience comes to see how their known characters pan out on screen. Byomkesh Hotyamancha is an incomplete work. Hence, the expectation is different.

How was your experience in working with an ensemble cast? Obviously, this is not the first one…

How a character pans out in an ensemble cast depends on the writer and the director. It doesn’t matter to me how many co-actors I have. I see the gravity of my character. Maacher Jhol is about mother and son. But my one scene on the rooftop is good enough for the audience to remember me. Same with Indrani Chakraborty’s Chhad. On the other hand, after Srijit Mukherji’s Zulfiqar, a lot of people questioned the justification of my character. Hence, Srijit and I have decided that we will work together again when an important character comes up. There are certain characters without whom the film remains incomplete. It is not the length of the character but the impact that becomes important. I like such characters.

Also read: Byomkesh Hotyamancha review: Abir Chatterjee brings back Byomkesh nostalgia in a whodunit devoid of thrill 

Byomkesh is all about Byomkesh. Rituda (Rituparna Ghosh) asked me to play Satyabati. That was a different time and I felt otherwise. In this film, if anything goes wrong because of an ensemble cast., it will be Arindamda’s responsibility. If all goes well, the credit is all mine (laughs).

You are scheduled to go to Canada with your film Chhad. Indrani Chakraborty’s film will be screened at the International Film Festival of South Asia, Toronto.

No, I could not go due to the visa queue. Also, ever since Arindamda got to know that I would not be here during the premiere of Byomkesh Hotyamancha, he kept on saying, ‘Impossible. You cannot miss it’. He is very happy that my tour got cancelled. He promised to take me to all the places – the US, UAE, Australia and so on – wherever Byomkesh is getting released.