Never wanted to be an actor: Konkona Sen

Konkona on turning director with A Death in the Gunj.

SHE IS ONE of the most formidable actors in Bollywood but Konkona Sen Sharma says she never planned to have a career in showbiz. After winning praise for her acting skills on screen, the 36-year-old actress is now turning director with A Death in the Gunj. Her directorial debut is all set to go into production soon and Konkona insists she had no plans of directing a film. "Honestly, I never wanted to be an actor and I never thought I wanted to be a director. But it's just that this particular story fascinated me for so long... I didn't think I would write a script either. But it started getting bigger and bigger and at some point I thought 'oh so this is how it's going to be like', I have to write and direct it," she said.
The actress was speaking at the launch of Honey Trehan and filmmaker Abhishek Chaubey's production company MacGuffin Pictures, which is backing the film.
Apart from an ensemble cast of actors like Vikrant Massey, Kalki Koechlin, Gulshan Devaiah, Tanuja Mukherjee, Om Puri and Tillotama Shome, A Death In The Gunj also stars Konkona's estranged husband Ranvir Shorey. Asked if he was ready to be directed by Konkona, Ranvir joked, "I had said no (to be part of the film) but she insisted. And when someone insists so much, specially when the director is the mother of your kid, so..."
"I think as an actress, and she is such a fabulous one, she understands what actors go through. She is very gentle, almost tender I would say, which is a rare quality in a director. I think when she had not thought about making the film, I had told her to go ahead and do it because she had a fabulous idea... I didn't know I would be a part of it."
Legendary lyricist Gulzar, who was also present at the event, quipped about Konkana's slim avatar, saying, "Direction may aadmi aksar dubla ho jata hai (Often people get slim because of direction)". PTI