Aparna Sen: Might do a sequel to Mr and Mrs Iyer

Highlights

• Award-winning filmmaker Aparna Sen is contemplating a sequel to her highly acclaimed Mr and Mrs Iyer with Konkona Sen Sharma and Rahul Bose reprising their roles from the 2002 movie.
• At the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF), where her Bengali comedy Goynar Baksho (Jewel Box) was screened Tuesday night, Sen sat down for a tete-a-tete and spoke about her new plans and her professional camaraderie with her daughter Konkona.
• "I might do a sequel to Mr and Mrs Iyer, I'm not yet sure, but I just might do it," Sen said when asked about her next project.
• Without divulging any further about the plan, she, however, said it was "obvious" that she will bring Konkona and Rahul back on screen again.
• "If they (the characters) are meeting after 10 years, we can't have other actors playing them," she said.
• An English language film, Mr and Mrs Iyer saw Konkona as a Hindu girl, while Rahul played a Muslim man. The film traces the escapades of these strangers against the backdrop of communal unrest. The story ended at a point when their characters went their own ways.
• It will be interesting to see how the sequel brings them face-to-face again.
• What Sen enjoys most perhaps is directing the talented Konkona in whom she sees a lot of herself.
• Their understanding as a mother-daughter and as a director-actor duo has reflected through their past films - Mr and Mrs Iyer, 15 Park Avenue, Iti Mrinalini: An Unfinished Letter and now Goynar Baksho.
• In Goynar Baksho, Konkona has delivered an effortless performance as Somlata, a timid girl who is entrusted with the responsibility of guarding a jewellery box owned by her aunt-in-law, whose ghost watches over her. Konkona's character stutters and she has managed it like a natural.
• "Konkona is a very good actress, she is every director's dream. She is a very dependable actor, and not just for me, all directors like to work with her because she is a trouble-free person.
• "She is very disciplined and comes on time. Besides, she seems to be able to pull off everything," said the proud mother.
• Konkona, who couldn't make it to Abu Dhabi for the screening, was initially hesitant to stutter in the film, but then she agreed to it.
• "She felt the stutter would turn out to be too fake. She wanted me to find someone who stutters so that she could pick it from there, but I insisted that she must stutter because her character was too good to be true.
• "I said, 'Please let's do it' and she pulled it off," recalled Aparna, who has been an actress herself. She did films like Akash Kusum, Joy Jayanti and Alor Thikana.
• Does she find a lot of herself in her daughter?
• "Yes, a good part of it. I see a lot of myself in her", she said.