EXCLUSIVE! Indraneil Sengupta On 10 Years Of Kahaani: Vidya Balan Is A Dream Co-Actor

A decade ago when Sujoy Ghosh's film Kahaani released in theatres on this day (March 9), little did the makers know that it would eventually go on to become one of the most effective thrillers of all time in Hindi cinema. With two flops behind him, Ghosh had approached novelist-writer Advaita Kala with an idea. The latter with her previous experience in Kolkata, weaved it into a story and the rest is history!

Starting with the close-up shot of a white lab rat being exposed to a toxin, Ghosh set the stage for thrills quite early, before he took us to the busy streets of Kolkata filled with yellow taxis, puchka stalls and fish markets. From there till the last shot of a Durga statue getting submerged in water, the director made his jigsaw puzzle full of 'suspense'.

While Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chatterjee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui put their best foot forward here, Kahaani is incomplete without the mention of Indraneil Sengupta who played the role of Vidya's missing husband Arnab Bagchi, before Ghosh throws in a twist right at the end.

On the completion of 10 years of Kahaani today, Filmibeat got in touch with Indraneil Sengupta. Speaking about how he bagged the role, the actor tells us that he was offered Kahaani when he was shooting for a Bengali movie in Kolkata.

"I was shooting for a Bengali film in Kolkata at that time and I got a call from Sujoy's office for this role," the actor reveals in the interaction.

Calling working on Kahaani a breezy experience, Sengupta is all praise for his director Sujoy Ghosh and co-star Vidya Balan.

Indraneil shares, "The experience was easy breezy. Sujoy is an absolutely stress free person to work with and Vidya is a dream co-actor. So it was fun all the time."

One of the biggest highlights of Kahaani is its high-voltage climax, where a heavily pregnant Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) confronts the terrorist (Milan Damji) who killed her husband, and Ghosh drops a shocker of sorts.

On being asked what was the most challenging part of his role, Indraneil reveals, "The two characters, Arnab of Vidya's 'kahaani' and Milan Damji were diametrically opposite. So to play the loving Arnab and the ruthless Milan in the same film was the most challenging part."

While for Vidya Balan's character Vidya Bagchi, her 'kahaani' was a tool to avenge her husband's murder, for the audience, it's a classic example of a story well told with the right mix of emotions and mystery!