Exclusive! Sreelekha Mitra on IFFM nomination: It is not my answer to Tollywood as it is too small an industry to be bothered about

Sreelekha Mitra’s performance in Once Upon A Time In Calcutta has been lauded across the world. Directed by Aditya Vikram Sengupta, the film was screened at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in 2021. Sreelekha received the best actress awards at several festivals, including the New York Indian Film Festival 2022. Now the actress has been nominated at the Indian Film Festival Melbourne alongside Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone, Bhumi Pednekar, Vidya Balan and others. 

Talking about the nomination, the actress said, “I am missing my father. I wish he was here. I am honoured that I am nominated alongside so many exceptional actresses. Winning the award is secondary. But this recognition matters to me a lot.”   

Sreelekha is known to be critical of Tollywood. In 2020, she brought allegations of nepotism and groupism against a number of Bengali actors and actresses. While her allegations created an uproar in the media, not many members of the fraternity came to her support. In fact, the screening of Once Upon A Time In Calcutta at the Venice Film Festival also saw a lukewarm response from the industry. Will this nomination be her befitting answer to the fraternity? “It is not my answer to Tollywood. It is too small an industry to be bothered about. The industry has never supported me. On the contrary, it ignored my work and humiliated me. There was a time I used to feel bad about it. Not anymore. When I brought allegations of nepotism, one actress took to social media to criticise my work. She dismissed my allegation. Recently, her film was pulled down from theatres due to a big release by the biggest production house and she threw a fit on social media. I call it irony,” said Sreelekha. 

The actress also said that the Bengali film industry failed to explore her potential. “I am greedy for good work. I want to work more. Tollywood did not explore my potential. Aditya did and I really want my city to watch my film. I recently worked with Bejoy Nambiar in a web series for Hotstar. The amount of respect I received there was enormous,” she said.