News Mania Team was fortunate to get the opportunities to catch hold one of the most versatile and busy actor Mr. Rajatava Dutta of the film and theatre industry who has portrayed various roles from being a genie to a villain. He has worked in both Tollywood and Bollywood industry.
The team was headed by Victoria Ghomes along with photographer Joy Malakar.
VG: Firstly I would like to thank you sir for taking out time from your busy chedule for this interview with News Mania. I would like to start with what generated your interest in acting and how did you enter the film industry?
RD :Actually I didn’t think of becoming an actor in the beginning. From my childhood, I used to like watching actors and they felt like magicians to me who would point a finger at the audience and tell them to smile and they would smile, point a finger at them and tell them to cry, they would cry, so I really wanted to learn this skill. And in the beginning I used to sing and I took training in music for a long time and during that time like everyone else I would write poems and do theatre with my friends and along with that I had a job and after some time the job became very suffocating and I left the job. Then I felt that I had two options, either I choose acting as a profession as I like it or I can choose any other profession which I won’t like and somehow earn a living. I chose the first option, to choose a work I
like to do as my profession.
VG:. You are highly popular for your negative characters. Here I have two questions for you. How do you prepare for your negative characters and portray them so flawlessly?
RD : Firstly when I see a negative character I see it as a positive character and I consider that all the work that the character does, the character has a justification for it. The Character is clear to himself about why he is doing it.
Any crime takes place because of a few reasons, it may be put of greed, whims, anger or a person by nature cannot stay without committing a crime. So that’s how I justify the character and see it in a way that the character has a clear logic behind whatever he does and considers himself as a good person and he is doing the right thing. This is how I characterize.
VG: How did you break free from the stereotype of playing these negative characters?
RD : Ah, each character that I play, I play it differently for every story and it can be a negative character. Like the actors those who play heroes they also play the character of a hero very monotonously. They also try to portray it in a different way because every character has a different profession, interacting with different people events are very different hence when I play a negative character, I take it in a way that my surroundings get changed so the reason, the aim or the result of the character I want to be might be same but how the character develops, who the character interacts with, the realisations and the logic is very different. This is the way I differentiate.
VG: You have worked in both Tollywood and Bollywood industry. What is the major difference you find between these two industries as an actor?
RD : My work life has been really long, it’s about to be 30 years now so I’ll be talking from the perspective of the present situation, not of the past. Till date the Bengali Film Industry has been through three major troublesome events, demonetisation, Chit Fund which had a negative effect on the industry, maybe a lot of money from the Chit Fund was rolled in the Bengali Film Industry, which had hit hard and at the end, Covid situation and because of that what happened is the regional audience has decreased and through the OTT platform the entertainment industry has reached the palm of the people. And to cut down the budget, Bengali films are being made within a short number of days, from 22 days it has come down to 8-9 days of shoot.
When the film reaches the theatre, nowadays majority are multiplex, one hall might play a South Indian movie or a Hollywood or Hindi movie which has been shot over a span of 2 years and with the budget of the same movie almost 450 Bengali movies can be made. Hence there is an unequal fight, there isn’t a hell and heaven difference between the price of the tickets, maximum 10 to 20 Rupees so this is more like the Bengali Film Industry is fight with ” belan chaki” against an armed army. In this case when I am shooting for a Hindi film or watching a film I am seeing that the movie is being shot for a long period time. Making a film is an expensive art form in itself, it is quite impossible for one or two people to make it on a very small budget. You need good equipments, if you want best intellectual people in terms of this particular art, be it actors, camera person, editors or sound, to gather the best people it is going to be expensive and time consuming, there are multiple drafts of the script, multiple edits. This is nearly impossible in the Bengali Film Industry in their current practice of making films in a short span of time and releasing them. The more the films are stuck in the post production process the pricier it gets. Moreover the intellect can be stolen. If the Bengali industry tries to nurture a storyline for one year or so, it can steal by any regional industry or Bollywood and they release the movie in a short span of time. Hence we need to work faster and the difference in the quality of the film becomes very evident.
VG: You have been working in this field for almost 30 years now. How has your work changed since you started and how much has the content changed?
RD : A lot of things have changed. My work started with Tapan Sinha’s movies and after that a lot of amazing actors and directors have entered the industry and with due respect to them I would say that we are yet to reach the level of Tarun Majumdar, Tapan Sinha or Satyajit Ray. We can understand this very easily when we see that there isn’t much recognition in the international circuit like there was before. Hence this makes a huge difference. On the other hand the positive side is that during that time the
number of people a movie could reach has changed after the arrival of internet.
VG: Though you have got many accolades in your life.. How do you feel getting Bharat Dignity Award 2022 from News Mania ??
RD: This is absolutely a prestigious moment for me because I wasn’t very aware of News Mania’s Bharat Dignity Award 2022 but once I saw the panel it was an envious panel and it was my honour to be a part of it and to receive this award alongside such talented people of India. I further congraualte News Mania for this new Venture.
VG:. What is your advice for aspiring actors?
RD : I myself am still working and learning so I don’t I come to a position like that but I believe that if you stick to your passion no matter what it will be fruitful. If you don’t have dreams like owning your own private jet or buying the entire Empire States building then you can easily sustain your whole by following your passion but you have to be patient and stick to it no matter what.
VG: What are your upcoming projects?
RD : There are two major works with Netflix. I can’t say anything apart from this because of legality but out of the two works, the teaser is ready for one project. Secondly, “Mayakumari” by Arindam Sil is suppose to release. Another movie by Arindam Bhattacharjee called “Shibpur”, which is based on the 80’s wagon breaking violence is ready. Then “Dal Bati Churma”, a comedy by Haranath Bhattacharjee. Apart from this there is a movie with Bonney called “Archies Gallary” which is directed by a girl named Pramita Bhattacharya who’s a passout of FTII, batch of 2004 or She was a Assistant Director for the movie “Rang De Basanti” and I liked working with her. There are more 8-9 movies like this which I can’t disclose at this moment. Some movies are on the making, some are almost done. There is a movie called “Hridoypur”, then a movie called “Guts” which I did recently. Now the recent shoot of outdoors in Shantiniketan for a
movie called “Cafe Wall”. There is a movie name “Tritiyo” which will release in November. In all there are quite a few movies.
VG: Thank you once again for your valuable time with News Mania and we wish you more accolades and best regards ahead in all your ventures.
Happy Diwali!!
News Mania Desk
