It's such a sparkling script, was blown away: Konkona Sensharma on 'Luck By Chance'

Konkona Sensharma says she was completely blown away when she first read the script of Zoya Akhtar's 2009 movie "Luck By Chance", an unusual story that spoke about the inner workings of the film industry through the eyes of two strugglers.

The popularity of Aryan Khan's series "Ba***ds of Bollywood" has brought the focus back on "Luck By Chance" and Farah Khan's 2007 hit "Om Shanti Om" as they all are set in the big bad world of Hindi cinema. Fans are sharing reels, scenes and memes from these movies on social media.

Konkona, who currently headlines JioHotstar's popular series, “Search: The Naina Murder Case”, is happy that "Luck By Chance" is back in the limelight.

"I had heard about this script, I'd heard it's great, not very conventional. It was perhaps not getting the kind of green light or the actors that it had wanted to originally," she said in an interview.

"Then I read it and felt, 'It's one of the best scripts I've ever read'. It is such a sparkling, fantastic script that I was just blown away. I was bowled over. I was just like, 'Oh my God, can we start shooting tomorrow, please?'"

The actor said it was fun to play Sona Mishra, a small town woman trying her luck in the film industry.

"What an interesting and unusual character with a great and unusual resolution. It has a nice little traditional romance, male hero... I was really privileged to have worked on that film," she said.

Known for her roles in films such as “Mr. and Mrs. Iyer”, “Omkara”, “Life in a…Metro”, “Wake Up Sid”, “Talvar”, and “Lipstick Under My Burkha”, Konkona has also directed two critically-acclaimed projects — her feature debut "A Death in the Gunj" and "The Mirror" segment in anthology movie "Lust Stories 2".

For "Search: The Naina Murder Case", the actor reunited with Rohan Sippy, who produced "The President is Coming" and directed web series "Side Hero".

Konkona said Rohan and the writers had already covered most of the ground in the series, which is based on the popular Danish series “Forbrydelsen” (The Killing).

"The original is a great show and (our show) was beautifully adapted to an Indian context, and Rohan was directing it," she said.

The actor, mostly known for her intense portrayals, explored her comedic chops in "Killer Soup", where she played a woman, who is terrible at cooking, but dreams of opening her own restaurant. When her dreams are thwarted, she turns to killing those who block her way to realising her dream.

Konkona said she rarely gets to do comedy, though she loves the genre.

"I'm, very often, a very earnest and good kind of, above any moral reproach, woman of substance and all of that." Is she bored of it? "A little bit," she said.

In "Search: The Naina Murder Case", she is playing ACP Sanyukta Das, who is forced to team up with Surya's ACP Jai Kanwal, her eccentric replacement, to investigate the murder of a teenager.

Konkona said it would be great fun to watch a woman play a "stylised over the top cop" and she is up for a role like that in future.

"But we rarely see women behaving badly on screen anyway, regardless of their profession. We rarely see women behaving irresponsibly, especially if they're a mom. We rarely allow for that in real life or even in other roles," she said.

According to the actor, most women cops are portrayed a certain way because that's what the majority of the audience likes.

"I am always so wary of majoritarianism because unless a few people take chances, we're never pushing the envelope actually," she said, adding that she liked "The Wire". "But I was just thinking (of) ‘Kill Bill' (Quentin Tarantino's 2003 film starring Uma Thurman), where we actually see a woman, very stylized and fighting, and it's so much fun."

The actor is returning to the direction soon with a comedy series that she is co-writing and co-directing with Jaydeep Sarkar of docuseries “Rainbow Rishta” fame.

“I'm co-writing, co-directing, and it's quite a challenge. That's still coming up, and it's still a while away." She said she will not act in it.

The actor, who is the daughter of Bengali filmmaker Aparna Sen and writer-journalist Mukul Sharma, has often chosen content over popularity. That, she said, is a deliberate choice.

"From very early on in my childhood, I have believed that what is popular is not necessarily good. I want to do things which interest me. If I can make it work, great. If I can't, then I won't, it's okay.

"I want to do things which are not necessarily very popular, I'm okay to do them with little resources...That's the path and the life that I've chosen."