Jisshu U Sengupta: I want to be known as Sara Senguptaa’s father | Exclusive

It was 2 am on Friday when Sara Sengupta finally called her father Jisshu U Sengupta in Kolkata after her successful debut as a model at Thursday's Christian Dior show in Mumbai. An emotional Jisshu and his wife Nilanjanaa Senguptaa could not control their tears of joy with their daughter’s debut on the global platform. In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Jisshu, Nilanjanaa, and Sara talked about the evening, her trepidation and success.

“It is still sinking in,” said an elated Jisshu. “I can’t still believe that our daughter just walked the ramp for Christian Dior… the Christian Dior. It is one of the luxury brands we all look up to. There were 99 models from around the world and Sara was selected as one of them,” he added.

Sara got her final mail of confirmation the previous evening before the show. Elaborating on her journey, her mother Nilanjanaa said, “It was a Mumbai-based modelling agency that wanted to sign her up as their model. However, since she will be appearing for her boards, we weren’t sure. In the meantime, she got a mail from the agency to was for Dior in the show. She was primarily selected by them through her Instagram handle. They asked her to send photos and videos of walking. And then she was called for another screening in Mumbai.”

Also read: Jisshu U Sengupta’s daughter slays ramp at Dior’s Mumbai show 

It was ace model Nayanika Chatterjee who groomed her through two online sessions to go give her the primary essence of the work. “The biggest challenge was the wait and trepidation. There were a couple of days after I went for the final screening and before they sent the confirmation mail. Those days were a bit of a challenge when I was expecting a response for them. But when I walked the ramp, it was all easy. Everything came to me organically — as if it was a cakewalk,” said Sara.

Nilanjanaa said, “We kept on telling her to take it easy. We told her not to take it on herself if she was not selected.” Jisshu added, “I gave her examples from my career. I think I was rejected from roles the most number of times among my contemporary actors. I remember a couple of years ago, I was selected for a character in a very big film. The look test was done and everything was sorted. Just before the shooting, I was dropped from the project. It was a sense of disappointment but I never looked back. I told my stories to Sara I told her that it is a ruthless world and hence, she must take it on herself.”

Meanwhile, the 17-year-old budding model is very sure that she will be picking up this as her career. “This came to me naturally. I am absolutely sure that this is what I want to do in my career,” she said.

While Nilanjanaa was in Mumbai but had to give the event a miss because of the limited invitation. “I told Sara that one day it will be because of your work our seats in the front will be secured,” said Nilanjanaa. Meanwhile, Jisshu, who is shooting in Kolkata, expressed his pride and joy. “There were 99 other models from various places and my daughter was one of them. This is not just any ramp. It is the ramp of Christian Dior and I am very proud today. After today, I want to be known as Sara Sengupta’s father,” said the actor.