"On Rituparno Ghosh's sets they served two kinds of fish every day for lunch. I don't pick. I've both, in ample portions. Plus a lot of mishti doshi and other sweets which just happen to be around. But I don't feel guilty.
I'm going to the gym every morning before shooting. And the location is seven minutes away from my hotel. So I don't need to be caught up in Kolata's infamous traffic."
How is she coping with the Bengali?
"What do you mean, coping with the Bengali? I'm a Bengali girl and I get much practice at home in Mumbai. My two Bengali maids in my kitchen were my rehearsal ground for this role."
Bipasha is making sure she wears her blouses up to her elbow for her first Bengali film.
"I play a woman who's older more mature experienced and a wife to boot. Ritu has given me these crisp cotton saris. I wear them with long blouses so that my muscles don't show. Can't look muscular when my life is sagging. "
Bipasha in her first neo-realistic outing says it's the easiest thing in the world to do realistic films.
"I don't know why people think it's tough to do realistic roles. Not at all! It's the fantasy that's hard to make real. For my role in Rituda's film the cotton saris, long blouses and a bindi took care of the physicality.
Having a co-star like Prosenjeet also helps. He's a very big star here in Bengal. But he has no ego. He's so eager to make every scene come alive. No starry airs on Rituda's set. We're one big family."
Family is what Bipasha misses in Kolkata. "It's ironical. But my parents and sister have moved to Mumbai. But my father is coming down to Kolkata for a day on 18 December to arrange a family dinner for me. That's when I'll meet all my pisha maas and uncles over one evening."
Bipasha is all praise for her director. "Ritu-da is definitely going to present me in a different light. And by that I mean even the physical texture and mood of the shots.
Otherwise there's no big difference between the working system in Mumbai and Kolkata.
Yeah, Ritu-da did give me a hard-bound script to begin with. But you know what? That's what I get from all my producers in Mumbai these days, and not just Yashraj. I even got bound scripts for Goal and Abbas-Mustan's Race!"