/> Even as Dustin Hoffman prepares to play the head honcho of the eco-challenged Californian Pacific Lumber Company in Deepa Mehta's Luna, another seasoned Hollywood trouper Martin Sheen arrives in Bhopal in September to play the Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson

While Luna features John Abraham alongside Hoffman in Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain Martin Sheen will have Tanishtha Chatterjee for company.

Says the committed actress, "It directed by a British-Indian director Ravi Kumar. There're only two Indian actors in the ensemble cast played by me and Rajpal Yadav.

Martin's role of the controversial Warren is fabulously written. It's neither black nor white. It's a very relevant subject. The director is originally from Bhopal, so that helps."

From playing Satish Kaushik's oppressed Bangladeshi wife in Sarah Gavron's highly-acclaimed Brick Lane to starring with the indomitable Martin Sheen in a film about the Bhopal gas tragedy, Tanishtha Chatterjee has made that craggy journey from ragas in Strings to tentative riches in showbiz.

Tanishtha is happy doing cinema with a social conscience. "I learnt acting from the National School Of Drama in Delhi. Then I went to Europe for a year to work with different theatre directors.

Now I'm happy being a part of a cinema that's more than just entertainment. I did a German film called Shadows Of Time three years ago. That was a breakthrough for me."

Tanishtha played a Kolkata-based courtesan's journey from the 1950s to present times. "I also did a Bengali film Subrato Sen's Bibhor which was written by Bengali litterateur Samresh Basu where I played a call girl. The French just loved me in that. Then there was Brick Lane which has changed the profile of my career."

Apparently Brick Lane was offered to a lot of actresses including Sameera Reddy.

Tanishtha corrects the perception. "The director Sarah Gavron had seen me in Shadows Of Time at the Toronto Film festival. She came to India and met all kinds of actresses.

I was the first person she met. But she couldn't believe the first actress could be the best choice. I remember I had returned from Paris and went straight for the audition in jeans.

A far cry from the Bangladesh housewife in Britain that I had to play. The next time I wore a saree and tied my hair."

Brick Lane won Tanishtha a best-actress nomination at the British Independent Films awards. "It was an honour to be nominated alongside Judi Dench who along with Zohra Sehgal, is my role model.

These two actresses show such spirit at their age. My first play was with Zohra Sehgal. At 90 she remembered every line. She was far better prepared than I was. It was an eye-opening experience."

In Brick Lane Tanishtha plays a repressed Bangladeshi housewife in London who has an adulterous affair with a young British-Asian boy.

"I completely believed in the character Nazneen. During my research I met many such repressed wives. And they weren't necessarily Asian. In fact the novel by Monica Ali was very popular among British women.

Such women have never experienced normal things like teenage infatuation. So for Nazneen the boy is a window to an unexplored world. It's very real."

Tanishtha had a harrowing experience shooting for Sanjay Jha's Strings. "While I was shooting for Brick Lane in London he got someone else to dub my voice. I had offered to do it before I left. He added all those stupid giggles to my character. I do giggle in real life. But not for that character." Tanishtha has just finished debutant director Rajan Menon's Barah Aana. "Again a very contemporary subject about migrants in Mumbai, about the have-not and the haves.

I'm doing an eco-friendly film White Elephant produced by the NFDC. It's going to be directed by ad maker Eijaaz Khan to be shot in Kerala. It's based on a popular folk tale."

So no dancing around the trees fo Tanishtha? "Let me save the trees first, " she shoots back.