While in Dibakar Bannerjee's "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy", Sushant plays a detective in Kolkata in the 1940s, in Shekhar Kapur's "Paani", he is cast as a ghetto-boy from Mumbai in the year 2050.
The cultural and chronological leap is tremendous. And Sushant, who with just three films has prepared a roster of character-portraits rather than star-vehicles for his career, is revelling in every bit of the challenge.
"I'm ready to make a 110-year leap from my last film to the next. In '...Byomkesh...', though I had to go back in time to the 1940s, I had solid reference points. I watched a lot of films from that era. Then of course Dibakar was there to guide me.
"With 'Paani', there are no reference points. I've the freedom to interpret my character in any way I like. In the rehearsals and workshops, Shekhar Kapur has allowed me complete freedom to do what I like with the character. Such supreme freedom is also a kind of captivity, as you tend to go overboard. With Shekhar's help I am trying to make my character in 'Paani' believable," he said.
About his very unorthodox selection of roles - as an aspiring cricketer in his big screen debut in "Kai Po Che", a horny wastrel in "Shuddh Desi Romance", a 1940s' detective in "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy" and a ghetto-Romeo in futuristic Mumbai in "Paani", Sushant says the irregular is the regular for him.
"I don't think I'd be comfortable playing the typical loverboy romancing pretty girls in designer clothes. I'd die if I've to play stereotypical characters," he added.
