With a filmography reflecting strong, complex women who either challenge or simply stand out amid societal strictures, actress Priyanka Bose doesn’t toe the line, whether it was in Jugnuma or Gangor. In a chat with us, she talks about her decision to turn intimacy coach for actors in films shootings and change in feminine narrative in Indian films.

I love the feral anguish each one of us grapples with. I have ample space to introspect, but sometimes this space just expands because some questions still plague me, like getting to know myself or trying to find the psychological truth in personal or professional.

I’m dabbling with it. I feel directors are too vulnerable to communicate what they want in intimacy settings. It’s technical yes, but you need the actors relaxed and regulated. Coaches make the transition smoother or more sensitive, without much dialogue. I learnt what is appropriate (in intimate scenes) the hard way, now I want to teach.

Exactly, no one cared. We struggled, not only in comfort, but also with what the environment should be like. Good actors will do anything for that space. A good intimacy coach (and I’ve worked with really bad acting coaches), will never take the actor out of their body. A relaxed actor is someone who is guided by the control on their impulses and intimacy coaches make it go seamlessly.

Women narratives are in a beautiful space now. When I started out, I sounded a bit off tangent. Now I see more people inclined towards feminine narrative. The indie circuit needs more structural support and more resources for truthful stories.

I don’t know if it chose me or I chose it. Nothing will ever define me. No criticism, no delays, nothing will ever define me.

Aashta Atray Banan (MID-DAY; September 11, 2016)

"Maybe you need to tell me why there is this distinction between Indie and mainstream cinema. I can’t understand it. One gets slotted in one particular image and then that’s that. I am aching, to break out of this mould,” says actress Priyanka Bose, who meets us just before jetting off for the Toronto International Film Festival, where her latest movie, Lion, is going to be screened. We are eating salads on a cool evening at Versova’s popular hangout for the filmi type, Leaping Windows. And Bose seems excited as she talks about Lion, which has her playing Dev Patel’s mom. “Dev has just grown up so much since Slumdog,” says the actress in her early thirties, from Delhi. Lion, which is based on the book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley, tells the story of Saroo who was lost from his family at the age of five and adopted by an Australian family, and who finds his parents at the age of 25 using Google Earth. “I had read an article on this film a few years ago, and I had been like, someone should make a movie on this. I guess I put it out there in the universe and then, I auditioned and they loved it. It’s strange playing mother to Dev, but the story is told in flashbacks and dream sequences,” she says, adding, “When the character is so great, and the arc so fabulous, it doesn’t matter whose mother I have to play.”

It could be that attitude that has led to her doing some interesting roles in the past, marking her out to be an actress of note. She shot to fame with her role as a tribal woman in 2010’s Gangor, which was directed by Italian director Italo Spinelli. She toured the world with Nirbhaya, Yael Farber’s play based on the 2012 Delhi rape case, and film festival friendly movies like 2014’s Sold (about a brothel in Nepal), 2012’s Oass (about child prostitution) and 2013’s Oonga (about an adivasi boy’s obsession with becoming Rama). But the indie darling now wants to focus on doing all kinds of movies, even though her next two are also independent ones. “I don’t want to do movies where the characters are clichéd,” she says, adding, “Actually, I want more women directors and writers to make movies about women. Only then can we stop being wife, daughter, cook and could play the girl next door, who has a dark side.”

Priyanka also says that she grew up on Chitrahar and was a big fan of Sridevi. “I think I must be the only filmy person in my family. My parents are very simple people who wanted me to become a doctor. But now they have seen what I do, and are happy. I always wanted to be an actor.” Right now, along with waiting for Lion to hit screens in November and working on two other indie projects — “one is a psycho thriller, and another one is a really explicit one” — she wants to be as open to possibilities as she can. “I want to do as diverse roles as I can. I want to do mainstream movies… maybe comedy? I know I can do this. I have faith in me,” she signs off.

From coming out about being sexually abused as a child to being cast alongside Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, actor Priyanka Bose is slowly but surely finding her niche
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 11, 2016)

By the time this piece goes to press, Priyanka Bose would have lived her dream — attending the red carpet premiere of her film Lion at the Toronto International Film Festival. Apart from Bose, the film stars Dev Patel, Rooney Mara and Nicole Kidman and is based on Sairoo Brierley's autobiographical book, A Long Way Home. The film traces the story of a five-year-old who got separated from his family in Madhya Pradesh and, following a series of events, lands up in Hobart, Tasmania, when adopted by an Australian couple. "Sabyasachi is dressing me and I am very excited as I haven't seen the film myself," says Bose, as she settles down at a Yari Road coffee shop that she frequents. In the film, Bose plays Kamla, a rural woman who endured much after one of her sons goes missing; her sense of loss was what Bose imbibed. To internalise her character, Bose went to Madhya Pradesh to meet the mother her character was based on. "My questions were basic and just by meeting her, I could tell how hard her life has been. I got down on my knees and hugged her and thanked her for her courage," she says, adding, "She's the hero of her village now but a lot of people hate her for that. In fact, many called her crazy for years as she never gave up hope that her son would return one day." The book, she shares, was "Sairoo's one-dimensional testimonial" but the screenplay was "made up of fragments of everyone's frequency". So Kamla doesn't figure in the screenplay and is seen through the eyes of the protagonist, played by Dev Patel. But the co-star who Bose was particularly star-struck on being associated with was Nicole Kidman. "When I learnt Nicole Kidman is in it, I was blown. She's just incredible and my favourite films include The Hours and Eyes Wide Shut. Once Garth Davis [the director] actually told me that 'You and Nicole have the same kind of spirit' and I was like 'He just used me and Nicole in the same sentence'. I couldn't believe it."

But this isn't her first film to go international. She also played the lead in Italo Spinelli's Gangor (2010). Based on Mahasweta Devi's short story, Choli Ke Peeche, Gangor toured film festivals across the world and even screened at the Rome International Festival. "Unfortunately, we didn't have the right producers, which is why it never theatrically released in India," she rues. But working on it, she recalls, was "a truly liberating experience". "My audition scene was intense — my character was narrating the events that led to her rape. The director pushed me to internalise the sensuality of a tribal woman," she says of the film which was shot in Bengal and underlines the violence prevalent in tribal areas.

Born in Kolkata and raised in Delhi, Bose is "Bengali by birth and Punjabi by spirit". "Ever since college, I did dance shows — jazz, contemporary, modern, Manipuri and Kathakali and took up amateur theatre after graduating." Her first tryst with professional theatre was in Sanjoy Roy's Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan which was selected for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. "It opened my eyes to the world. My parents wanted me to pick a profession which guaranteed a secure life. But I am very rebellious and wanted to explore."

A one-way Delhi-Mumbai ticket was secured and Bose was in tinsel town to put her skills to test. "I wanted to do the kind of cinema I had experienced while growing up. Actresses like Smita Patil and Rekha — who didn't fit the mold but were poetic." But maximum city was yet to deliver on Bose's dreams. "I took up odd jobs like being a back-up dancer on stage, auditioned for tele-marketing shows. I did the odd advert but it didn't interest me," says Bose, who got her first break as a bit role in Dibakar Banerjee's cult film Love Sex Aur Dhokha. "I played the bitchy editor in the third story. If I were to do the same part now, my process would be different and way more severe." But Bose's most acclaimed performance was in the testimonial theatrical Nirbhaya, which is pertinent to Bose for personal reasons. "Nirbhaya happened in a cathartic way. I was holidaying in Kerala when the rape happened in Delhi. I was shaken by the incident and felt that fragments of me were scattered everywhere. I couldn't connect with the city. For the first time in 25 years, I broke my silence about being sexually abused as a child in the play, which also had women who had suffered similar realities. It was revolutionary theatre and that's why you make theatre — to tell the stories that no one wants to tell."

About Lion, she's positive, but also a tad nervous. "If you do one thing really well, it's a trap," she says pointing at how Nirbhaya's success became detrimental to her career. "When you do something so strong, people get scared and I wasn't getting cast for the things I wanted to do following the play. I also have a side which is soft and sensual and I can still play the girl-next-door. But even she has her secrets and a dark side," she says, sharing her childhood dream of playing Govinda's girlfriend in a movie.

What also turned Bose off about many filmmakers was their approach to casting female characters. "If someone tells me, 'Yeh tere dialogues hai, aake bolo', it doesn't work for me. When I wear the character, I need to know how the director envisions it and my process is only going to take it forward. If my character brief is, 'hot and sexy hai' or 'angry ya whatever hai' it won't work for me." Bose is however happy that the film industry has broken out of the shackles of nepotism but feels that female filmmakers urgently need to up their game. "I want to do hyper-genre films. India is experiencing filmmakers like Pawan Kumar (of Lucia fame) and stories like Paranoia. I want women directors to write better for women. We still think of the ghisa-pita archaic stories when it comes to women-centric films."