Around 15 years ago, when Anasuya Sengupta moved from Kolkata to Mumbai to become an actress, she had never imagined it would take her so long to make her mark in cinema. “I used to tell myself that if it has to happen, it will happen one day. I didn’t know it would take 15 years,” she tells us. Anasuya plays the protagonist Renuka in The Shameless, for which she won the Best Actress award at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section – a first for an Indian actor

About working in the film, she says, “When you see everyone bring in their A-game, you give it your best. You can’t give the best actress award to a crew, but just one person can’t do it alone.” The actress, who is currently in Delhi where her husband, Lt Cdr Yashdeep Sharma is posted, speaks to us about her journey from Kolkata to Cannes.

For Anasuya, acting took a back seat when she became an assistant director. Thereafter, she worked in the art department, eventually becoming a production designer and then HOD of the production design department at 26. As a production designer, Anasuya has worked on projects such as Ray and Chippa, and she believes that it was her love for storytelling that led her down this path.

She said, “So, cinema, writing, storytelling, and repeatedly working with some wonderful people have been constants in my life. I think the environment I created for myself has always been very artistic. I worked on developing a strong instinct, so when Konstantin (Bojanov, The Shameless director) offered me the film, I knew I had to take it.”

In conversation with us, Bojanov said that it was not an immediate decision for Anasuya to accept the role; she took a while before making a decision. What was she hesitant about? “I wanted to act, and I used to tell myself that if it has to happen, it will happen one day. I didn’t know it would happen 15 years later, and I wasn’t actively thinking about it. When Konstantin approached me, it caught me off guard. I may be a first-time actor in a way, but I’ve been in the industry for so long. I kept wondering, ‘Are you sure? I don’t have a whole body of work. Will you be able to mount this with me? Will the producers agree? I was almost worried about the film,’ and he kept saying, ‘Just read the script’.”

Anasuya says that The Shameless’s story touched her so much that she wanted to give it her very best. She said, “If people are connecting with her (the character), I felt the exact same thing when I read the script. I mean, she’s almost like a feminist icon in her own unsung way. Those are not the heroes we sing about, and why don’t we? It bore right into my heart. I wanted to stand up for her more than anything else, and that’s what steered me to just do a deep dive.”

“There is no Renuka without Devika,” says Anasuya as she talks about her co-star Omara Shetty, who played Devika in the film.

“Renuka’s character was a bit of a lone wolf, a nightcrawler type. A lot of my mental work for the character involved spending a lot of time by myself, walking the streets alone, and listening to music. Much of my preparation was focused on that. Except for this light in Renuka’s life, which is Devika, portrayed by Omara. We kept having discussions about how in this dark world, the love between these two unlikely odd characters is the light. It’s that love, this is the light for both characters,” she adds.