Swastika Mukherjee describes herself as 'greedy actress' in search of intriguing roles

Actress Swastika Mukherjee says she will play the complex character of a single working mother of a differently abled child in the upcoming Bengali film 'Kia and Cosmos'. Swastika, who describes herself as a 'greedy actress' in search of intriguing roles, told PTI that "my status as a single mom perhaps helped me when I was relating to the script." "An actress extracts from every type of real life experience from her own life depending on the character and the demands from the character," said the actress who appeared in films like 'Family Album', 'Shah Jahan Regency' and 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy'.

On 'Kia And Cosmos', she said, "In my opinion it is one of the very few films which has seriously delved into the issue of autism." Describing it as an important step to take up the issue of autism in the film, Mukherjee said, "Ritwika Pal essays the role of a special child in the film and I play her mother." Showering compliments on Ritwika, Mukherjee, who enacted the role of Kiya's mother Diya Chatterjee, said "she had entered into the zone of a special child two-three months before shooting began and I sometimes used to forget she is not Kiya ... " "I even used to tell her to behave normally when the camera was not rolling."

Recalling that director Sudipto Roy did not get much financial help at the initial stage of shooting and had to take recourse to 'crowdfunding' before getting a good producer as the shooting progressed, Mukherjee said, "I always back young directors if the subject sounds interesting." "The more (varied characters), the better for me," she said. Ritwika said, "The scenes between me and Swastika Ma'm had lots of emotional quotient. There was serious communication between two souls and hence the scenes took so much time. Her energy level was infectious." "We have to make people aware that autism is not a taboo and every kind of autism is not the same." she said.

'Kia and Cosmos' will be release on March 29 Mukherjee whose role in her first Marathi film 'Aaron had been critically acclaimed, said "a little more work is left" in her second Bollywood project without giving further details. The film, directed by Mukesh Chhabra, is the Hindi remake of 'Fault In Our Stars'. "I am now like a daily passenger travelling on Kolkata-Mumbai route," she said..

(With inputs from agencies.)