Helicopter Eela star Riddhi Sen on Kajol: She has been a game changer

The youngest actor to be honoured with the National Award this year is all set for the release of his forthcoming Bollywood flick. Yes, you guessed it right we are talking about none other than Riddhi Sen, the young actor from Kolkata, who has bagged the National Award this year for his performance as a transgender in Kaushik Ganguly’s Nagarkirtan.

Riddhi is now super excited for Helicopter Eela, where he plays Kajol’s son. How did he bag the project? In an interview with My Nation in Mumbai, Riddhi revealed, “I shot an ad with dada (Pradeep Sarkar) in 2016. Later on, I got to know that at that point of time only he had finalised me for this project. Last year, I got a call from him asking me to come to Mumbai for the film. I thought I had to go to Mumbai for auditions but after coming here, I was told that I have already been selected for the role.”

Riddhi is all praises for Pradeep Sarkar and described him by saying, “Dada is a rare human being.” He added, “Every alternate person I meet in the industry today, be it a technician or an actor, they say that dada has introduced them to the industry. I think this man has a heart of gold and his contribution to the industry is unbelievable.”

In the film which deals with the story of a single parent, the 20-year-old plays Kajol’s son, who is a student of college first year. Talking about his on-screen mother Kajol, Riddhi said, “What I admire about her is that she has been a game changer in terms of being herself. Way back in the 90’s and till now, she actually does what she wants to do, she always follows her heart. This is a rare quality. Not all of us can do that. She doesn’t do things just for the sake of doing it, she genuinely lives that moment, be it her profession, be it her life or anything.”

Helicopter Eela has also been produced by Ajay Devgn Flims. Did the producer visit the sets? Did he interact with Riddhi? The actor said, “Yes, a lot of time. He also happened to be the producer of my previous film Parched. We communicated a lot whenever he came on the sets. We have shot for a commercial also a few days back with dada (Pradeep Sarkar). Ajay Devgn is an amazing person. It was lovely interacting with him.”

Riddhi is the son of renowned Bengali film and theatre actor Kaushik Sen. His mother Reshmi Sen is an actress. Riddhi, who made his film debut at the age of 11, is also a regular in his father’s theatre group Swapanasandhani. What has he imbibed from his parents?

The actor answered, “I think it is more about creating an ambience at home. The kind of ambience my parents created, allowed me to think freely and make decisions. We acquire a lot of things genetically but we also acquire by observing others from our surroundings. I have learnt a lot by observing my parents— how they deal with success, failure, media and everything.” He added, “The primary thing which I have learnt from them is sensibility.”
 

Apart from Nagarkirtan, Riddhi has worked in several Bengali films like Open Tee Bioscope, Chirodini Tumi Je Amar 2 and Iti Mrinalini. He has worked in Bollywood films Bhoomi and Parched prior to Helicopter Eela. What difference does he observe between the two film industries? Riddhi informed? “I think economical difference is the only one because this is a national industry and that is regional. We can't afford a lot of things there. Here we can shoot a film for 60 days but in Kolkata, we finish a film in 15-20 days. So, I think, the technical preparation is quite difficult over there. A big challenge for the regional industry is to make a low budget film not look like one.”

The youngster feels people’s conception about him has changed pretty much after his bagging the National Award. But the award has not changed him and he still remains grounded. Riddhi adds that as an actor he wants to keep on learning. He said, “I feel I have to learn everything. I need to learn about acting, I want to be a filmmaker in the future so I want to learn that. Life is something where learning never ends. For an actor, learning is very important, because his biggest inspiration is life itself. So, I think an actor’s learning process can never stop.”

Helicopter Eela directed by Pradeep Sarkar and starring Kajol and Riddhi Sen in the lead hits theatres on October 19.