A Colourful Mosaic of Beauty and Brains | Rohini Chatterjee

Rohini Chatterjee – Bengali actress-cum-model, and proud of what she does, is as eccentric as the characters she’s played.

Her love for acting was developed in a rather spontaneous manner but she cherishes it till date. A Mass Communication and Videography student during her graduation, she learnt the nuts and bolts of film making and camera techniques. This interest later grew many folds and made her pursue a Master of Arts degree in Film Studies. On-ground knowledge is what she had desired to experience through it, regardless, she still treasures what she gained from this course.

For her final dissertation, Rohini wrote a paper on Remake of South Indian films into Bengali and Bollywood versions. She managed to take interviews of acclaimed filmmakers like Mr Ashoke Viswanathan and Mr Subrata Sen for the same. Rohini recalls having insightful conversations with the two. Call it luck by chance, or a destined happening, she later received calls from both the directors for film auditions.

For Mr. Ashok’s film, Bhrasta Tara, she auditioned for a character of a mute village girl. The expressions had to be much nuanced and vivid because that’s the only way a mute would emote. She cleared the audition phenomenally and went ahead for a 3-day shoot and workshop for the film. Later, for “Subrata da” as she calls him, she worked beside Mr Rahul Arunodoy Banerjee in a feature film called Mister Bhaduri, which was her big break to the big screens. The seed of love towards films had been sown in her by then and she reveals that her love goes beyond acting. Rohini still gets giddy remembering how she felt the time she first saw herself on the big screen. Rohini has played a range of atypical characters. From a witch and a dwarf in Roopkatha, a TV serial, to a lesbian lover in a feature film called Revelations by Vijay Jayapal, it had its World Premiere at the Busan International film festival. It got a lot of appreciation and critical acclaim in many international and national film festivals all over the world. The entire team was from Chennai and it was one of the best teams she worked with. Throughout these characters, she maintains, she was lucky to have a set of directors and crew who would criticise her but simultaneously make her feel “at home” on the set.

She also played the role of an autistic in the movie ” Jelly Lojens”.  This one was a challenge for her, and it made her very happy when people loved her as the character and many told her that “Playing such a character is very tricky, but you didn’t overdo it at all”. Such appreciations always push you to go a step further towards your dream and keeps confidence in yourself intact. 

Things went south for her when she did this one series called Dr T. Pay Dhor where she played a flirtatious nurse. Despite being praised for her acting in the series, she knew it wasn’t being executed well. The show gained glory for all the wrong reasons, and trolls started unsettling her. She quit the show but is eternally grateful for her boyfriend and her family’s support throughout it all.

She is a strong-headed, food-loving, and family-oriented individual. Rohini enjoys exploring regional cinema and also wants to work in the Malayalam film industry. Loving the energy of a film set, she says, “it’s something that makes me smile instantly, be it behind the camera or in front of it.” Art direction is something she wishes to delve into when given the opportunity. “Working upon my love handles is somewhere on my list of goals, too”, she goofily mentions!

She values each role she gets and is of the opinion that she may not fit a conventional Bengali “heroine” face. She doesn’t, however, want to tail and butter people up for work. Her knowledge of filmmaking has driven people away as they find it intimidating, but she cannot “act dumb just because people cannot deal with it”.

She read an actor’s interview during this lockdown where he said, “We actors are in quarantine most of the time.  In our profession, we do experience lockdown often. So this one isn’t something new for us.”  She strongly relates to this statement and advised that friends, relatives, colleagues will try to pull you down always. Listen to everyone’s advice with a smile on the face, but always do what you feel is good for you and your profession. Make yourself worthy of your work, be loyal to your dream, your career, and always keep on learning from every way possible.

To the striving creators and actors, Rohini parts with this wise counsel, “Stick on to what you love, get a grip and work towards it even in the darkest times. Upskill yourself so that you can upsell yourself!”