Jisshu Sengupta: I don’t like to call 2018 as ‘my year’

It’s perhaps all embedded in the stars. Some actors are born to essay a specific role; some characters are destined for the actors. In Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’, Jisshu Sengupta grabbed a role that redefines him. Here comes an actor who even after enjoying a successful popular run over the past few years; yet somehow has been almost diffident about the limelight. But it seems things have finally changed. As Bhawal Sanyasi, he literally owns the character. The period drama has already become a major Box Office hit this year.

Jishhu has seen many releases this year with all of them, ‘Ghare And Baire’, ‘Uma’, ‘Shonar Pahar’ and lastly ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’, winning hearts. Many believe 2018 has been Jisshu’s year delivering back to back hits. However, while speaking about his successful stint this year, the popular actor said he doesn’t want to call it ‘my year’. “Not at all! Frankly speaking, I don’t see this as ‘my year’. I prefer to take one film at a time. When a film releases and whatever success it enjoys, it’s there to be judged by everyone and then it’s gone. Now I have to focus on delivering a better performance than my previous one. I will look into better scripts and roles. I don’t like to think like that a certain year was, is or will be mine,” explained Jisshu.

Jisshu has become director Srijit Mukherji’s obvious choice in recent past. ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’ is the celebrated pair’s seventh film together and the versatile actor believes he now understands what exactly Srijit wants from him in each of his films: “It’s my seventh film with Srijit. Now I know exactly what he wants from his actors. I remember, in our first film he would explain the scenes to me. And now as it’s our seventh film, he would just brief a line and I would understand what he wants. When you have worked with someone in so many films, it eventually becomes relatively easy. While I worked with Rituparno Ghosh, it was like this as well. My first film with Rituda was ‘The Last Lear’ and the last one ‘Chitrangada’ in which he acted also. He would have given me the necessary cues and I would understand all that needed.

Jisshu Sengupta has his hand full of projects right now. But when slipping into different characters in so many films one after the other, does detachment from the last character and moving on to the next one is difficult? Jisshu reveals he doesn’t stay with the character as soon as the director says ‘cut’.

“When I was shooting for ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’, ‘Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi’ shoot was also going on. Being an actor, for me it’s all about ‘action’ and ‘cut’. When I hear ‘action’ from the director, I slip into my character and when the director says ‘cut’, I am out of the character. You won’t believe, one day I shot for ‘Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi’ and the next morning, I had to take the Kolkata flight to shoot for ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’,” revealed the actor.

While his latest ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’ has received an overwhelming response so far, the dashing actor is also wrapping up his shooting parts in ‘Manikarnika’ and with one more Bollywood project, Mahesh Manjrekar’s ‘Devidas Thakur’, in the pipeline, Jisshu has also been announced as the protagonist Sandip in Aparna Sen’s ‘Ghare Baire’ reboot. He is a key part of the NTR biopic as well.