Chitrangda Singh: Her presence needed to feel like home

A still from Bob Biswas

Though Bob Biswas was centred on Abhishek Bachchan's character, Chitrangda Singh held her own as his wife Mary, proving that screen time hardly determines an actor's memorability. Her performance has won her a Best Supporting Actor (Female): Film nomination at the mid-day and Radio City Hitlist OTT Awards. When approaching the character, the actor says she purely went by producer Sujoy Ghosh's vision. "The only brief Sujoy gave me was that Mary needs to be the woman every man wants to marry," she begins.

Elaborating on her approach, Singh says, "Her presence needed to feel like home; my character had to have [that calming] presence and warmth. After his memory loss, Bob is falling in love with her all over again, and he doesn't want to let go of her. That's what I kept in the back of my mind while enacting every scene," she recounts.

While debutante Diya Annapurna Ghosh took on the directorial reins for the spin-off of Kahaani (2012), the story was written by Sujoy and Raj Vasant. Singh believes the writer-producer has a knack for creating women characters that one can identify with. "The most beautiful thing about Mary is that she keeps the family together. Her strength lies in her simplicity. She has pressure at work, she has a [co-worker] flirting, but she needs to [block] that and keep the house running. There is an air of practicality to her, which women will be able to relate with."

Cast your vote for the Hitlist OTT Awards

Chitrangda Singh has been nominated in the Best Supporting Actor (Female): Film category for Bob Biswas. The other nominees are:
>> Aditi Rao Hydari (Sardar Ka Grandson)
>> Ileana D'Cruz (The Big Bull)
>> Priyanka Chopra (The White Tiger)
>> Ratna Pathak Shah (Hum Do Hamare Do)
>> Sheeba Chaddha (Pagglait)

Log on to www.radiocity.in/hitlistawards to cast your vote.
You can also vote via SMS. Send HITLIST <space> category name <space> your choice (a/b/c as on the website) to 57575.
Voting lines close on March 18.