TLI Staff
New Delhi: Roopa Ganguly wears many hats. A versatile actress, a national-award winning singer, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha.
While playing Draupadi in Mahabharat gave her recognition nationwide, she is known for her critical acclaimed performances in Bengali films like Padma Nadir Majhi (1993) by Goutam Ghose, Janani (1993) by Sanat Dasgupta and Yugant (1995) by Aparna Sen among many others.
Roopa Ganguly has fond memories of shooting Mahabharat and making double the effort in getting her accent right as she was not well-versed in Hindi. Watching the re-run is bringing back the rush of memories associated with the show.
The actress in 2011 also won a national award for singing in Aditi Roy’s Bengali film Abosheshey. She has also won awards for her husky and haunting voice in the songs Dure Kothay and Aji Bijan Ghare.
Back then, when Ganguly was asked by Ravi Chopra to sing a song in Mahabharat, she promptly agreed to it though she also gave him an option of hiring a professional singer if her attempt was not successful.
‘I sang the song in one take and everyone liked it’
“I sang one song in Mahabharat called ‘Naino Ke’, and it was a beautiful experience. What happened was that the makers were looking for someone to sing the song that was to be picturized on me. Ravi sir suddenly asked me, ‘Will you sing a song?’ I was quite okay with that and didn’t think much of it because I was singing ever since I was a kid. While I agreed, I also told Ravi Ji that if my attempt at singing was not successful, I was completely fine if they hired a professional singer for the same. Luckily, I sang the song in one take and everyone liked it. It is a lovely song. Today after all these years when I heard the song and I was happy that I agreed to lend my voice for it,” she said.
‘I used to be the first one to turn up on the sets’
Playing Draupadi for Roopa Ganguly came with a lot of hardwork and reporting early to the sets as like others she did not have a command in speaking Hindi. “I had the most wonderful time playing Draupadi. While it was a challenge for me because I was not so well-versed in speaking Hindi, I made double the effort. The one memory that I have from the time was that I used to be the first one to turn up on the sets. The schedule was very strict back then and we all had to report on time. Ravi Ji was very friendly but he also made sure that we follow a disciplined life on the sets. And I had no problem as I would report on the sets way before the 7 am deadline. I would be there at 5 am!”
‘So many flashbacks, so many memories’
Nobody who worked on Mahabharat would have imagined that it would become so big that trains would stop at stations which had a TV set so that people could watch their favourite show. “We had put in a lot of hard work and we were confident that people would like the show. But slowly we got to know about the impact it had on people. We got the news that trains used to stop at stations which had a television so people could watch Mahabharat! At that time, we were very busy shooting the show, so we never really realized that the show had become such a huge hit. I didn’t even get a chance to watch the show properly at the time. I am watching the show properly now on Colors and there are so many flashbacks, so many memories of shooting those scenes,” she said.
‘Cleaned up every nook and corner of my house’
Ganguly in the meantime is spending her quarantine time cleaning up her house and distributing sanitizers to the needy.
“During the lockdown as a part of my relaxation, I have done a lot of household work. From childhood, I have been very fond of doing household work. During this time, I have cleaned up every nook and corner of my house. This is what I focused on. I also got sanitizers made from my doctor friends and got it distributed across to people,” said the actress.
People have loved me and adored me over the years: Pankaj Dheer on playing Karna in Mahabharat