Exclusive! Ritwik Bhowmik : It's never the actor but the director is the star of a film and web series

From making his mark as a budding star with the Amazon original web series Bandish Bandits in 2020, actor Ritwik Bhomik is quite carefully crafting his on-screen image as a sensible actor in meaningful, content-driven projects, be it The Whistleblower, Modern Love Mumbai and now in his latest film Maja Ma.

One of the common threads in all his projects is his sensitive portrayal of a man, quite opposite of the so-called alpha male image that many budding actors are opting out for, which demands more building physic than the mind to deliver nuanced performance.

Asked about if he has a strategy to create his on-screen image with every choice of his projects, in conversation with OTTplay, Ritwik opened up.

Ritwik told OTTplay,"I have certain criteria to say yes to any projects for sure but that has nothing to do with creating my on-screen image. I genuinely believe that in a film it is not the actor but the director is the hero, we actors are the face of the film. And now those days are gone when the audience will watch a film, only because of an actor.

"Also, since I am a budding actor, it is important for me to work with the director who I trust and subscribe to his/her idea, in the story. I have worked with Anand twice because he surely is one of those filmmakers who know how to extract my best performance," he added.

Ritwik started acting as a child actor from the age of nine as a stage actor and acted in films like Cargo, Dhuusar and the web series Office vs. Office before making it big with Bandit Bandish.

Asked if he is interested in doing action films with physical transformation and thriller that also shows men flaunting toxic masculinity, Ritwik shared his thought on the same.

"Look, if anything is toxic, I might just have to think twice about the overall impact of the story. But character image is a different thing. There is something called the silhouette of a character, where the writer has imagined the character who looks in a certain way. I have got characters so far who are lean, and tall with a heavy voice that I have. If tomorrow a director wants me to look in a certain way, say, if I am playing an army officer, I have to bulk up. I will do that. Having said that, for me, I not only look at my character but the overall story and its impact," explained Ritwik.

His latest film Maja Ma, directed by Anand Tiwari, starring Madhuri Dixit along with Gajraj Rao, Barkha Singh, Rajit Kapoor, Sheeba Chadha among others, streaming on Prime Video.