As told to Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 25, 2017)

My maternal grandmother, Liaqat Ahsan, who was a kindergarten teacher for 45 years and was our window to the world, had long been fascinated by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali women for their ‘speaking’ eyes, in particular Satyajit Ray’s Aparna, Sharmila Tagore, and the language which she asserted was the sweetest in the world, jaise zubaan mein koi shakkar ghol di hai. In 1995 I went to Kolkata for the first time for a store launch, soon after Vijaypath released, and instantly fell in love with the City of Joy which seemed suspended in time, a kind of magical realism which drew me to it. Like my nani, I was also drawn to the women there who looked ethereal with their ‘taant’ saris, ‘bindis’ dotting their forehead and sindoor streaking their ‘maang’. I marveled at how rooted they were in their culture and when they spoke, it was music to the ears.

However, despite my enchantment, I did not visit the state for a decade but jumped at the chance of doing a Bengali film, when Goutam Ghose approached me for Abar Aranye (picture above). The 2003 film was a sequel to Satyajit Ray’s iconic 1970 adventure drama, Aranyer Din Ratri, taking Ashim, Sanjoy, Harinath and Aparna, the characters from the original, back to the forest after over three decades. The nostalgic trip goes awry when my character, Ashim and Aparna’s daughter, is abducted by local tribesmen. I had one condition - to be allowed to dub for the films for the pleasure of speaking the language I loved—and Goutam da graciously agreed.

I had worked in South Indian films earlier but had never dubbed for them. This time I was determined to lend my voice to my character, Amrita. I didn’t have any Bengali friends at the time and in those days you did not have a language coach coming with you on the sets. But I quickly bonded with the all-Bengali unit as we filmed in Kolkata Bolpur, Jalpaiguri and a tea estate in Siliguri where we stayed in managers’ bungalows but otherwise in small guest houses where it was difficult getting even a cup of real coffee. Chasing swarms of butterflies during the day and watching the fireflies dance around the bonfires at night, I learnt ‘bangla’ from the ‘gang’ I still know as friends. By the time the film wrapped up, I felt confident to dub my lines with Goutam da encouraging and helping me out.

Usually I finish my dubbing really quickly, but for this film I took three days. I learnt to distinguish between ‘ao’ and ‘o’ but had a little trouble with the accent. Goutam da reasoned that it was okay if it was not perfect because my character had just returned from the US. I consider learning ‘Bangla’ for the film a personal and professional milestone. It helped when I played Ashima in Mira Nair’s 2006 film, The Namesake (right), a role which required me to speak a few lines in Bengali.

After Maqbool, I did two levels of Spanish and two years ago, two levels of French. I get to try out my Spanish when I visit my family in California but I haven’t spoken French in a while and must have completely forgotten it. But my bong connection is as strong as ever. Much to my pride and delight, today I can speak the language fluently.