‘I make my own acting choices’
The film, ‘Sultanpur’ released last Friday. Following the release of the film, directed by Saikat Nasir Ashish Khondokar is in the limelight again.
Discussion’s been going around him in different film-related social-media groups. Everyone’s saying the same thing that he was splendid in Sultanpur. Some are also saying that he should be more regular in the mainstream cinema.
Ashish Khondokar enjoyed the film with audience, sitting in a corner of the theatre. He said, “I went to see the first day first show of the film at Dhaka’s Bashundhara Star Cineplex. It was completely houseful. People seem to like the film I think.
“People sitting in the audience received me very well on the screen. Fights, stunts, chase- there’s everything in this melodramatic content. The acting performance I gave amidst that, audience received that well, they liked it,” he added.
It was screenwriter Asad Zaman who contacted Ashish Khondokar first regarding Sultanpur. Thinking back he said, “He was the one who informed me about Sultanpur in the beginning. Later I had long discussions with Saikat Nasir about the film. It wasn’t an overnight decision, not at all.”
“I cannot work in just any film. Nobody can just make me dance to their tune. As an actor I too have the right to know where the character is actually headed or how it will reach there. I make my own acting choices.”
“But, Saikat Nasir seemed like a hardworking filmmaker to me. He does have a drive to commercialise in the positive sense. The qualitative aspect of the film is that it combines art with business,” he continued.
Ashish Khondokar was also acclaimed for playing the role ‘Nosu Dakat’ in Abu Raihan Jewel’s film, ‘Adventure of Sundarbans’ at the beginning of the year.
When asked the reason behind not finding him on the silver screens more often, he replied, “Communication gap.”
Meanwhile his web film ‘Antonogor’ is releasing on Chorki this 8 June. It’s his second project with director Goutam Koiri and the first with Chorki.
Actor, playwright, director, translator, filmmaker-Ashish Khodokar has many identities. He took interest in acting being encouraged by of his parents. He got involved with theatre during his student days back in the 80s. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Gaibandha.
Ashish Khondokar said, “After SSC, I migrated from Gaibandha Government College to Dhaka College. Later, I went to Jahangirnagar University and then moved to India’s National School of Drama (NSD) in 1991 without finishing my final year at JU.”
Ashish Khondokar studied at NSD for three years. He said, “I tried to become an academician actually. While I studied in NSD, just acting was never the focal point. I had a nice and comfortable life with three full meals a day. And I read a lot of books.”
“A larger community was created there, even beyond the friends I had made. I forged excellent relations with the acclaimed actors and directors who appeared in Indian art, theater and film later,” he added.
Ashish Khondokar wants to set up an acting laboratory and anyone will be able take up acting as a profession after three or four years of education from there. And he also wants state recognition for that.
In his words, “I started environmental theater from 1991. I wanted to develop actors through a proper method. That’s why the thought of setting up an acting laboratory in Bangladesh.”