Sheena Chohan in the lead

Indian model-actress Sheena Chohan has acted in renowned Bengali directors' films and with Malayalam screen legend Mammootty. So what is the big deal about her role as protagonist in acclaimed Bangladeshi director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki's yet-to-be released feature film “Pipra Bidya” (“Ant Story”)?
Well, ask Sheena that question and it arouses a medley of feelings in her. “I felt very excited, very humbled, and had a feeling that a whole new world was opening up for me”, she remarked in an e-mail interview.
For Sheena, who has trained in Anupam Kher's school of acting in 2010, “Every new venture for me presents a new starting line because it is a voyage of discovery and the flight into magical unknown”.
Acting in Farooki's film, according to her, was “An amazing challenge because it is a foreign film and it demanded a paradigm shift from the work I have been doing. Also, it presented a whole new set of challenges and opportunities that hopefully will propel my growth as an actor.”
For an actor who also has a theatre background, what was it like working with the renowned names such as Mammootty and Buddhadeb Dasgupta in such a short time in her career?
“It was a huge honour to work alongside an actor like Mammootty. I was quite awed initially but he went out of his way to make me comfortable; the mark of a wonderful human being and a great actor,” gushed Sheena.
About Dasgupta, she said the director's “Poetic flight of cinematic vision and the way he crafted out his content was an absolute joy to collaborate with.”
The journey across the border into Bangladesh was an important learning curve for Sheena. “Director Farooki is a man of great cinematic insight and his creative sensibilities and gift of expression were truly inspirational. Farooki was a towering influence on the entire movie-making process and it was a joy and privilege to have been associated with him,” said the actress.
Sheena found her Bangladeshi actor-colleagues (Noor Imran, Mukit Zakaria, Sabbir Likhon and Mohini Mou) in “Pipra Bidya”: “They were wonderful to work with; all very talented, cooperative and open and I was very touched by the way they accepted me as one of them.”
Asked if she -- being a Punjabi-- had any problem in speaking Bengali, Sheena said “Since I am a Kolkata girl, I have no problem at all in terms of both the Bengali sensibility and the language. However, I did have a coach who helped me with getting the specific pronunciations and flow right,” she added.
Among her favourite directors and actors and actresses, are Steven Spielberg in Hollywood and the new set of Bollywood filmmakers including Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Basu, Shoojit Sircar, Raju Hirani and Vikramaditya Motwane. And in Bengali cinema, the directors her favourites are Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Aparna Sen, Srijit Mukherjee and Farooki.
Asked if it is easier to make a transition to film acting from modelling, Sheena -- who has endorsed Sony Bravia and Videocon products -- replied “The advantage a model has over a non-model is that she is not camera-shy. I have also done a lot of theatre with theatre, so the combination of modelling and theatre presents the best of movement and acting. I'm also a trained contemporary dancer. Over and above, my acting course with the Anupam Kher School of acting allows me a certain proficiency in the acting process”.