Beginner’s luck is that elusive attribute that flits around like a butterfly refusing to settle down and when it does deem to settle, it is on the brightest flower. Mishti Chakraborthy had the enviable luck of kick-starting her career, while at college, with a Bengali film opposite well-known Bengali actor Prasanjit Chatterjee, at a time when she was modeling in her native Kolkata. Soon, by an enviable stroke of luck combined with being in the right place at the right time, she was called for the Bollywood film Kaanchi directed by Subhash Ghai.
Since then there has been no looking back. Mishti took a huge leap of faith and wooed the audiences in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil, which paid rich dividends. Yet again she is exploring another ambitious career choice by working with Prithviraj in the upcoming Malayalam film Adam Joan, which also stars Bhavana. A modeling contract that brought her to Kerala a year ago led the way for the plum project to fall in her lap. She was asked to meet director Jinu Abraham and that was it — she was penciled in for the role. Mishti terms her working experience as a fantastic one, where she found everyone cooperative and ready to help.
“I was an alien who did not know the language. Prithviraj is a fantastic co-star, who sat with me and helped out with the dialogues. I never felt like an outsider on the sets,” she says. The language barrier was difficult but not an insurmountable one. She explains, “I have been working across the south Indian industries for the past three years. So I have become adept at adapting to languages. I guess my tongue has gotten flexible now after dabbling in so many languages. Malayalam was not so difficult.”
Mishti does not merely memorise her dialogues but takes the pain to understand the meaning and get the proper grammar and diction right, making it easier for her to emote.
While she is very forthcoming about her experience, Mishti is cautious when it comes to revealing her role. “I am playing Prithvi’s love interest. That is all I am willing to divulge,” she says. Part of the shoot for the film was held in the lovely city of Scotland. Mishti, who loves travelling, reveals, “Scotland was really cold and I am not really a big fan of cold weather. We had a few days of shoot in Edinburgh and since I got some free time, I went sightseeing, shopping and drove around the city. It was fun.”
Mishti reveals she has not seen too many. Malayalam films but admits to having watched dubbed Malayalam films starring Prithviraj and Dulquer Salmaan. Mishti is completely comfortable with the industry hopping now. Though young in years, Mishti has a very sound criterion in place before she signs on the dotted line. She is also one of the few actresses who has different criteria for each industry. “My criteria for choosing a role varies from industry to industry. It depends on the market – in the south it is more of a star-driven industry, so I try to work with prominent names. In Hindi, I try to focus more on women-oriented subjects or performance-driven characters.”
While on the subject of women-oriented films, does she think more women power needs to be injected into scripts? “I don’t really believe in segregating films on the basis of gender. It is all about the protagonist of the film, who can be a male or a female depending on the story. It is not necessary to give a woman-oriented tag line to a film but the orientation should be more on the story and the script, not the gender. What matters for me as an individual is that I want my character to be strong!”
Mishti’s words are precise and her message clear. Here is one actor to reckon with. While the pretty actor with delicate features is busy with her career, she also manages to find some time for herself. A typical free day would see the actor lazing around at home spending time with her family and her pet dog. “I have very few friends and I spend my time with them too,” she mentions before signing off.
