I was called an unlucky actor for the longest time: Jisshu Sengupta

For actor Jisshu Sengupta, the lockdown “has been both fun and difficult”. The Bengali superstar says that the initial days were fun, but he soon started missing his action on the sets. “Initially, it was a lot of fun since I didn’t get a break from work at all. I enjoyed eating and sleeping till late. But after a point I started missing the fun on the sets and the hustle,” he says.

Sengupta, who has been a part of Bollywood movies such as Barfi (2012), Piku (2015) and Manikarnika (2019), will next be seen in Mahesh Bhatt’s Sadak 2. Speaking about the recent controversy around the film, he says, “We live in a world where there’s freedom of speech, everyone has an opinion and everyone is entitled to judge. I sometimes wonder, is it really fair to judge? Would we like to be judged? The pain is always felt most at the receiving end. And I hope someday all these accusations turn into adulation and people see the film as a film and not as people.” 

The 43-year-old actor, who feels that “mental health should be a priority”, says that he has dealt with “depression, fears, being judged and condescended”. He further says, “I was called an unlucky actor for the longest time. No one put faith in me, and I had bills to pay and a family to run. Hence, whatever opportunity came my way, I took it up. Then Rituparno Ghosh happened and he picked me up and pulled me and my life started to seem like it’s coming to track. I had then just begun to get my feet firm and I lost him. I stopped accepting work and I started drinking and closed myself away from the world. It was not easy. For days together I would not come out of my room.”

Ask him what he has to say about nepotism in the industry, and he says, “Of course, there is nepotism, but it doesn’t exist only in Bollywood or Tollywood or Hollywood. It exists everywhere. If you are an actor’s son/daughter/ niece/nephew/grandchild, it will be easier to get into the films, but only your talent will sustain that for you. So, I feel there’s nothing wrong in one producer favouring someone’s daughter or son, but I feel rejecting good talent on the basis of whether he or she enjoys legacy or not is a crime. There is favouritism and groupism which needs to be tackled first before nepotism.”