rediff.com, Movies: My women and me: Rituparno Ghosh

Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh was recently felicitated by the Bimal Roy Memorial Committee for his contribution to Indian cinema.

In an earlier interview, he admitted to a special affinity for women: "It's just that I feel I understand the inner feelings of women, their passion, agony and suffering."

Who better than him, we thought, to list his favourite actresses.

But he cautions, "My all time favourite actresses are always those whom I work with. Besides them, I have five more actresses whom I admire!"


		Waheeda Rehman She is so good that it is very difficult to pinpoint what exactly is exquisite about her. She is screen presence personified. She has such a mysterious face. But I don't want to get down to solving it, as that will take away its beauty.

		Shabana Azmi She is one actress I really want to work with. In fact, for my first film, Hirer Agnti, I had approached her to act in my film. For whatever reason, it did not work out. But I still remember she had loved the script so much that she offered financial assistance from the Children's Film Society of India, of which she was the chairperson then. She is my all time favourite.

		Tabu Tabu is a very sensitive actress. Her facial expressions are so good...

		Sabitri Chatterjee She is one of my favourite Bengali actresses. Really incredible. You have to see her to believe her. She has this immense sense of comedy and is very good at her job.

		Jaya Bachchan She's such a great actress. I loved her in Silsila. She enacted the betrayal of emotions so well, especially in the song Rang barse.
	Also, I think she was brave enough to play the ordinary, realistic person at a time when film actresses were supposed to be very glamorous. In fact, she started the trend of realism, which was later picked up by the Shabanas and the Smitas. Her contribution to cinema is immense.
	Text: Ronjita Das Design: Lynette Menezes
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