You need to learn every day, every moment in film industry: Prosenjit Chatterjee

Around 350 films and four decades later in cinema it may be a "little difficult" to reinvent, says Bengali star Prosenjit Chatterjee, who is on a quest for interesting parts with language no bar.

The actor is basking in the success of not one but two projects which were released around the same time last month: Prime Video series Jubilee and Bengali film Shesh Pata. The titles see him play creative men who are apart like "north and south poles".

In Vikramaditya Motwane's Jubilee, he essayed the role of Srikant Roy, a cinema patron and shrewd studio owner, whereas the Atanu Ghosh-directorial Shesh Pata featured Prosenjit as a renowned writer named Balmiki Sengupta who now lives in obscurity.

Also Read | ‘Jubilee’ a love letter to golden age of cinema: creator Vikramaditya Motwane

"I am enjoying every bit of this moment. It is not about Jubilee alone, but also due to Shesh Pata, in which I play a writer, who is an absolutely different character. At the same time, you have Jubilee, where the character has an aura, power, and is a creative person," Prosenjit, 60, told PTI in an interview here.

"I want to reinvent every day. I want to give new experiences to the audience. People have seen my 345 films, now it is becoming a little difficult, because in the last 8-10 years I have done so many different characters. Now, I am also like, what new do I give to the audience? I have taken everything as a challenge," he added.

The Kolkata-born actor, son of cinema veteran Biswajit Chatterjee, said his endeavour is to learn something new about cinema every day.

“If you are in this industry, you need to learn every day, every moment. I always say, ‘I am a student of cinema, I live with cinema’. If somebody comes to me for half-an-hour and if he or she talks about a story, I can spend around four-five hours with them because I love to hear things about cinema. I am too much into it,” he said.

Known for seamlessly gliding through genres, mediums and languages with titles such as Moner Manush, Mahanayak, Chokher Bali and Shanghai, Prosenjit said he broke out of every mould he was cast into.

"When I started out in Bangla cinema, people said I am a chocolate boy. 'He is like his father', they said. But, I wanted to come out of that image. Then, I started doing action. It was like, in every film there has to be action.

"When I used to go to gatherings, people would say, ‘He is earning money from dancing, doing action, etc’. I thought I want to do something that people should (look at me differently). I started with black-and-white films, then colour happened," said the actor, who made his acting debut at the age of five with Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Bengali film Chotto Jigyasa in 1968.

Srikant Roy, or Roy Babu as he is often addressed in Prime Video's show, appears to be modelled on Himanshu Rai and Guru Dutt, two of the pioneering personalities of the golden age of Indian cinema. According to Prosenjit, Motwane's brief was to bring alive the "Indian godfather" in the showbiz of the 1940s-50s.

While shooting a scene of Jubilee in which people salute his character Srikant Roy entering his studio Roy Talkies, the actor said he was reminded of Guru Dutt's classic Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959).

"This was my dream... Anything related to Guru Dutt, I am a huge fan of that. His (Motwane's) brief was more about the Indian godfather. He is a decision-maker. They do not have a peaceful end, but whatever this man says has to be done. All the characters in ‘Jubilee’ have a lot of shades and that is the beauty of it. It is not a biopic but it has a mixture of a lot of characters."

Prosenjit, who will next be seen in Hansal Mehta’s series “Scoop, said he will continue to do projects that appeal to him irrespective of the language.

“Something should challenge me. It is not that I am going to sign 10 films here (Hindi) right now... I am not bothered about the language, the character has to be great. I am happy with what I am doing. I do two-three films every year, that’s been my benchmark for the last 10 years," he added.

A self-confessed fan of Fahadh Faasil and Subodh Bhave, the actor wishes to work in Malayalam and Marathi films.

“I want to do Malayalam, Marathi films. I want to work with Subodh Bhave, Sachin (Khedekar), and a lot of new directors. I keep an eye on (Fahadh) Faasil’s work. If he has any film releasing on OTT, I have to watch it. It's great to watch him on screen,” he said.