Having made a mark in Hindi films, actor Sayani Gupta is all set to venture into regional cinema with the Bengali film, Asukh Bisukh. “I was quite nervous in the beginning, even though I speak Bangla all the time as it’s my mother tongue,” Gupta tells us.

The social satire will be directed by Kaushik Ganguly, a filmmaker she’s “always wanted to work with”. Speaking about her transition to regional cinema, the Zwigato actor shares, “I hadn’t acted in Bangla in many years, and I had only done theatre before. I was wondering how it would be, but it was pretty much the same, so that was interesting. It’s a great exercise for an actor to be able to do that (work across industries).”

Gupta emphasizes the importance of adapting to different languages as an actor: “As an actor, you have to see how comfortable you are with that particular language. That comes in handy. A lot of people tell me that when I speak English or Hindi, I speak them as my language. As for the upcoming project, I enjoyed it and would love to do more Bangla films.”

Now that she’s worked closely in both Hindi and Bengali industries, are there any notable differences she’s observed between the two? “Operationally, the regional and Hindi film industries are quite different,” the 38-year-old states, adding, “The running of the sets, food and how people are; everything is different. The budget of the films is very distinct, as most regional films have smaller budgets. Also, in Kolkata, the shoots happen very quickly as compared to Mumbai.”

However, there is one change she would want to see in the Bengali film industry. “In Kolkata, they don’t use sync sound (using sound recorded during the filming); it’s all dubbed. It is not something that most actors of today prefer,” she ends.