Reminiscing the good old days, the National Award-winning director shares that she believes she had known Soumitra Chattopadhyay almost all her life. “I was 14 when I first met him on the set of Teen Kanya in 1960. I remember I didn't have any shooting on the day he arrived in Neemtita village where the outdoor filming was being done. I was reading by myself in a corner of the huge balcony of the mansion where the unit was staying. He came in a bullock cart sitting under the overhead shade and looking curiously around. It felt as if the real-life Apu had arrived in front of me. I was in class VIII then, and our whole class was in love with him after seeing Apur Sansar. He was so beautiful to look at! So you can imagine my excitement! But he was newly married then, and spent all his time writing letters to his new wife. My mother used to tease him about that and he used to talk to her about his marital bliss,” recalled Aparna Sen.

She also shared how ‘kaka’ Soumitra became a dear friend to her over the years. “Being very young, I used to address all the unit members as 'kaka' (uncle) – as in, Manik-kaka (Satyajit Ray), or Bansi,-kaka (Bansi Chandragupta, Ray's Art Director). cinema that we didn't believe in. But he didn't let the morass of mindless mainstream cinema consume him despite being an integral part of the mainstream film industry. I used to try to emulate this aspect of him. To that extent, we were both outsiders in the film industry while being very much a part of it,” she explained.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Aparna Sen recently wrapped up the shoot of his next directorial, a Hindi social drama titled ‘The Rapist’. The film stars her daughter Konkona Sen Sharma along with Arjun Rampal and Tanmay Dhanania in the lead.

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