/> Comic actor and Tere Naam director Satish Kaushik has just returned from the most satisfying experience of his life.

He got to play the role of Chanu, the bigoted Bangladeshi husband in the screen adaptation of Monica Ali's Brick Lane.

Sarah Gavron who won the BAFTA award last year for a television film, directed Kaushik in Brick Lane.

Says Kaushik, "When they offered me this role I was really surprised. I was in Delhi when the well-known casting director Loveleen Tandon contacted me. I was skeptical. But when I was told it's the lead in Booker-prize winning novel by Monica Ali I agreed to go.

First of all I bought the novel and ran across and bought a copy if the novel. I scanned the book to see how many times my character Chanu's name occurs. To my relief Chanu is there throughout the film.

He's the main male protagonist Then my screen test was sent to London. The producer Alison Owen (who has done films with Brad Pitt and Anrhony Hopkins) was keen that I play the role."

Tanishtha Chatterjee (Strings) plays Satish Kuashik's Bangladeshi wife. "It was an eminently invigorating experience. The discipline that I experienced during the shooting of Brick Lane for two and a half months reminded me of my days in theatre. Who does rehearsals in Bollywood?

I was walking around Regent Park where I stayed, memorizing my lines. I had never done English theatre in life. And yet they offered me this role. It's a very challenging role and for once I play a tragic role. It isn't a funny role at all. The tragic flaw in my character is that he's a big failure.

But he puts up a façade of being above his surroundings, that he's far better than both the Bangladeshis and the Britishers in England."

Satish has come back wiser and raring to direct another film. "I'm planning a film with new faces. I'm screen-testing absolutely new faces."