At Unilever's launch of new shampoo brand TRESemmé, after the
audience had been applauding rather absent-mindedly through some lovely
musical performances and three and a half sets of models putting up a
riveting fashion show, anticipation was rising for the Miss Universe
1994 and Bollywood superstar Sushmita Sen – to grace the BICC Hall of
Fame stage. Just before she appeared on stage, this correspondent and
photographer were yanked from the audience to wait backstage, with
promise of a close-up interview. And after we missed her captivating
stage charm and her recital of a Tagore poem, we were told to wait a
little longer as it was organisers' time to take selfies et al, as the
clock went past 10:30pm. By the time we went in 15 minutes later, we had
genuine concerns that she might be tired and not overly enthusiastic to
attend to a reporter.
Surprise, surprise. “Chole aye bhai, chole aye, bhishon 'thoke'
gechi!” (Come on brother, let's do this. It's been a long day!”), said
Sushmita in a bewilderingly endearing voice as soon as we were
introduced. “You spoke so fondly of Dhaka and your connection to it;
what are you taking back from this trip?” I ask. “I have been to Dhaka
three times now, and I cannot remember one time when I have not gone
back with a feeling of (pauses) … belonging,” she replies. “Everything I
do, good bad or ugly, they applaud it, like 'Amader meye,' ('Our own
girl'). Tonight, I saw a lot of my generation, I saw seniors, but what's
beautiful is I saw the newest generation, and they and I got to connect
tonight. And that means one more generation of Bangladesh has a
connection to me. And I will take that back with me.”
We talk about her return to films, with “Nirbaak”. “It was a scary
call, at first. Srijit (Mukherjee) is an outrageously talented man, and
when he told me the story, it took me two reads to understand the irony
of the film -- because it's not a regular narrative. I'm so glad I did
it, because after a while it gets tiring to express yourself with the
right banners and running around the right trees; and when you give away
3-6 months of your life, you want to know it will be worth it. Since I
was a little girl, my father always made sure we were in touch with our
roots. And he asked me to do one Bangla film, and I promised him I
would. When it premiered, he watched it with me with tears of pride in
his eyes.”
Will she be seen on screen soon? She smiles and says “At this moment,
no films. But there are brands I want to build, businesses I want to
do, and … I want to do films. But films that are no longer about chasing
Friday to Friday. It's about giving you something that you can look
back and say 'That's the Sushmita I love!' so I'm hoping to give you
that.”
As time runs out, the final question is about her daughters, who she
has adopted and is raising as a single mother. “My daughters are doing
very well. One is sixteen (Renée), but refuses to grow up from ten. And
the other one (Alisah) is six, going on eighty; she's an old soul. My
hopes and dreams for them are simple. They have their own lives. I want
to give them something rock solid to stand on, and then they're free to
fly in any direction they want.”
