Indian National Award-winning actor Prosenjit Chatterjee and actress Rani Mukerji have expressed anguish over the controversy surrounding Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period drama Padmavati, .
“It’s very [painful]... Directors will stop doing historical films the way it has been handled. For a performer, any creative person, they should have their own [voice],” Chatterjee said at the India Today Conclave East.
The actor has played diverse roles in his 35-year film career.
“As an actor, for a performance, for us, only my director and my character are most important and I have to deliver as my director instructs and there should be no issue with that,” he added.
Chatterjee warned that actors today will avoid seeking out roles as historic figures.
The actor had played Lalon Fakir — a 19th century Bengali spiritual leader, poet and folk singer — in the 2010 Indo-Bangladeshi joint venture Moner Manush.
“I’m suddenly hearing these reactions. Actors will never do a Lalon Fakir,” he said.
Chatterjee recalled that he although he was a Hindu playing a famous Muslim, he was accepted in Bangladesh.
“Because he is like a God [in Banglades]... I had to deliver as an actor... they accepted me [a Hindu] as Lalon,” he said.
Mukerji, during her session, emphasised that society needed to move away from hatred.
“We need to be more loving... We have to disassociate with something which is unloving. I believe in love because I am a new mother,” Mukerji said.
Prodded to openly back Bhansali, Mukerji said the filmmaker knows she backs him.
“Bhansali doesn’t need Rani Mukerji to back him on a platform like this. He knows that I back him, love him. He is my darling and Sanjay truly believes how much I love him and he knows how I stand by him. I don’t need the platform to express that,” added the actress, who worked with Bhansali in Black, which she said changed her “as a person and as a performer”.
