Hanging out with Sushmita Sen

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.”