Ritabhari Chakraborty opens up on what kept her away from Bollywood

Bengali actor Ritabhari Chakraborty marked her Hindi film debut with short film Naked (2017) alongside actor Kalki Koechlin. She followed it with another noteworthy performance in Pari (2018) where she shared screen space with actors Anushka Sharma. And now, she is set to return to the Hindi film industry with the short film Broken Frame and an untitled film.

She reveals that the pressure to match up to Pari made her very choosy about projects in Mumbai, as she elaborates, “I got offers for other films. Not having a proper idea of what I should do next, I went to my casting agency every time a project came my way, where I was told that whatever I do, it shouldn’t be below [the level] of Pari. So, I ended up saying no to a lot of things.”

Chakraborty reveals she even began prepping for a project but couldn’t be a part of it eventually, and a few others didn’t see the light of the day. “For one project, I lost 12kgs to play a girl from the slums. But then the director got changed at the last minute and he brought a whole new cast [onboard],” she shares.

Apart from the Covid-19 pandemic which delayed schedules, the actor adds that undergoing two back-to-back surgeries also came in the way of her Hindi film career: “I had an abscess and fistula surgery. I had to be hospitalised to get a procedure done every second day for six months between both the procedures. It took me a few months to feel centred again.”

Chakraborty, who penned a song last year and has pitched one of her scripts to a production house recently, continues, “I was on bed rest for four-five months. I lost touch with everyone and with everything I was doing. It was towards the end of 2021 that I began reconnecting with everyone in Bollywood.”