Tota plays mystical character in Vidya Balan’s ‘Kahaani 2’

Kolkata, Aug 17 (PTI) Tota Roy Chowdhury, last seen infilmmaker Sujoy Ghosh’s short film "Ahalya", describes theirupcoming collaboration "Kahaani 2", as a "hard-hitting, dark"film where he plays a mystical character. The actor, who won accolades for his role in AishwaryaRai-starrer "Chokher Bali", has completed extensive shootingfor "Kahaani 2" in north Bengal. "There is a certain mysticism in my character in thefilm," Tota told PTI. The actor, however, refused to reveal more citingcontractual obligation. "All I can say is that it is a beautiful, sweetcharacter and Sujoy’s delineation of his characters remindsone of Rituparno Ghosh, for the sensitive touch. And his wayof detailing art work also reminds me of Rituparno Ghosh,"he said. The present-day Bollywood directors like Sujoy don’tvisualise a character as a big and small one; they develop itin terms of how it fits in with the narrative, Tota said. Tota revealed that his performance in Ahalya had notopened the gate for him to act in "Kahaani 2". He had to gothrough the usual process of undergoing audition after beingsounded by Sujoy. "In Mumbai you have to get your role by givingaudition. It is a must for every big, medium and small actor.There is aN inherent democracy in that system." On the much-speculated sequel to "Ahalya", Tota saidhe was positive about bagging a role in the short film. "Sujoy himself had publicly stated so in an interview andthough he had not officially contacted me, he said the filmwould repeat the cast of Soumitra Chatterjee, Radhika Apte andthe ‘other person’. And we all know who the ‘other person’ heis talking about," Tota said. He said that "Ahalya" had surpassed all projectionsabout viewership. "While we had initially projected a three-lakh viewership, in reality it was 20 lakh, mostly onYoutube." Currently the actor is busy shooting for Bengali TVserial "Taranath Tantrik", based on a story on occultism byBibhutibhusan Bandyopadhyay. "As I wear the saffron ‘angobastro’ I fall into atrance. I become a tantrik who is endowed with supernaturalpower to fight against evil," he said. Tota has a plan to bring "Taranath Tantrik" on the bigscreen by his home production in 2017. PTI SUS MD MMPSH