Chitrangada Singh to play a cobbler in Babumoshai Bandookbaaz

Character demands have been known to get actors to do strange, unusual things and Chitrangada Singh is no exception. The actress is learning to mend shoes as she plays a cobbler in Kushan Nandy’s Babumoshai Bandookbaaz. The actress from Delhi is also learning Bengali as she has to mouth dialogues in that language for the film.

Kushan, who has co-written the film says, “My film stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Chitrangada. It is an action thriller and is to be shot in the badlands of West Bengal, including Purulia and Burdwan, which is famous for its red soil. Chitrangada is key to the film and like everybody in the movie, has shades of grey to her character. She is currently going through rigorous training to hone her skills as a cobbler from a real cobbler in Kolkata. She will be seen in a completely de-glam avatar with zero make-up.”

Kushan adds that it’s an interesting role. “The reason my producers Kiran Shyam Shroff, Ashmith Kunder and I selected her was that in spite of having a glamorous image, she looks very Bengali. It’s a masala entertainer and Chitrangada is not your conventionally pretty Bollywood actress yet she’s sensuous in her own way. She does not fit into the cliches of sexy-pretty Bollywood actresses we see. The whole idea was to pit the actors against each other. We are currently finalising another actor for the film — someone who plays a younger character. We will shoot the film in a start-to-finish schedule starting from this month.”