Interview: Priyanshu Chatterjee

The train heading from Bollywood to Hollywood is picking up steam and gaining ground, and Hindi film star Priyanshu Chatterjee has his bags packed, ticket stamped and is ready to be on the forefront of redefining global cinema.

While the ultimate stop is Destination: Unknown, Priyanshu believes the sky is the limit in terms of Indian actors working with their artistic counterparts to make a difference to audiences around the world.

As the Bollywood actor extends beyond the friendly confines of India and seeks to expand his career into Europe, Africa and, ultimately, the United States, Priyanshu told Buzzine in an exclusive interview at the International Family Film Festival on the Raleigh Studios lot that his chosen profession is all about cultural exchange and helping all of us understand each other better.

“An actor, like a musician, is an artist who, if well-trained and with an element of experience, can fit in any film anywhere in the world,” the tall Chatterjee said as he smiled down upon this relatively short writer. “What we can do is learn about other cultures, learn their language, learn the way they live and, in a way, live another life – which is what we are paid to do anyway.”

Such is a learning process the veteran and artistic thespian believes can only be corroborated by constantly pushing oneself to his or her limit – and Priyanshu believes the only way to expand beyond one’s capacity is to think outside the box and take on projects beyond their comfort zone.

Or, simply put, Priyanshu believes actors must promote more international collaborations and seek to constantly diversify their resume with more projects beyond the borders of one’s motherland.

“When you are working with an actor who you have already worked with, you pretty much know the range, the limitation. You become complacent,” the 37-year-old former model pondered. “Working with (an international cast) triggers a motor in your head. You are always on your toes because you do not know what is coming next. We are working toward the betterment of the film. It’s a fantastic exchange and it should happen.”

Still, while the actor who earned his big acting break with his 2001 debut in Tum Bin promoted fostering international growth of cinema and increased exchange of actors from every corner of the Earth, Priyanshu also said actors should always maintain his or her cultural roots.

To that end, he told Buzzine his latest film, Brad Glass’s Florida Road, in which he stars in a supporting role, is indicative of how an actor can balance international collaboration while staying true to his or her culture.

“The film essentially talks about this Indian family living in Durban for the past 30 years and what they have done for the local community there. It has a lot of messages about family,” Priyanshu, who most recently starred opposite Amitabh Bachchan in the 2008 film Bhootnath, humbly told Buzzine. “It is about NRIs living outside of the country, and how Indians have a very beautiful way of merging in (to their adopted homeland) and helping out the other communities as well as prospering themselves.”

It is in that context of families and the impact of NRIs in their adopted homelands that Priyanshu believes Florida Road – and ideally his own film career – epitomizes the ability of film to promote a balance between global integration and personal identification.

“Some are working very hard to keep (their culture) alive and to keep that gene going, not forgetting who we truly are (and) not allow(ing) this new place to take over our roots,” the actor who hailed from a middle-class family emphatically stated to Buzzine. “This film, bringing together people from different parts of the world, speaks on that. We were in an alien land. It becomes like a fine piece of machinery which absolutely clicked in the right rhythm.”

Accordingly, the thespian, who was the first person in his family to seek professional success in the arts, also said that by pushing himself to seek opportunities outside of India not only increases the qualitative values of cinematic projects and actors’ resumes, it also allows them to be regularly connected to the world on a simpler, more humanistic level.

“As an actor, this (working on Florida Road) helps me see the world in a better way and in a bigger way than I have ever imagined.”

While Priyanshu was tickled in informing Buzzine about how much working on Florida Road has opened his eyes, the Delhi University-educated actor now hopes his visualized imagination of a bigger and better world of global cooperation and cultural maintenance through cinema continues to become more of a reality with each passing day.