The strength of Bengali cinema to hold on to some of Bollywood’s up-and-coming talent is illustrated by the news that Soha Ali Khan will be working with Aparna Sen on Goinar Baksho (The Jewellery Box). “It’s a film that we have been planning to make for a long time and finally the dates and stuff have been decided,” she says, “I’m really excited, it’s a lovely script.”
Despite having made two Bengali films already – Iti Srikanta and Antar Mahal – Soha Ali still has problems with the diction and has been calling on her mother, Sharmila Tagore, to help her out. “I can’t speak Bengali at all but I can understand it,” Soha Ali explains, “It’s difficult because I have had to memorise my lines with much more effort. It’s a lot more work than required in Hindi and English films. I get my mother to say all of my dialogues and I record them and listen to them later to improve my accent.”
Meanwhile, the Oxford and LSE-educated Soha Ali is looking forward to the release of Dil Kabaddi on December 5th. She plays the role of Irrfan Khan’s wife in a romantic comedy. It gives her the opportunity to flex her acting muscles in a role that is totally different from her intense performances in Rang De Basanti and Mumbai Mere Jaan. Another interesting project is Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge, in which she appears with Sonu Sood, who is said to play eleven different characters in the movie.
