Nandita says ‘cheese’ in Manhattan

WEARING a white t-shirt and a colorful ghagra, actor and social activist Nandita Das made for a pretty picture. She was shooting indeed, but this was no film set.

The actor was seen last week on the streets of Manhattan, dancing before a still camera.

I can only do this in Manhattan, Nandita told The Indian Express soon after her photo shoot was over.

Taking time off from her hectic schedule, Das had requested a New York-based Indian photographer to click some of her pictures so that she can put them on her website. Her website is http://www.nanditadasonline.com.

Das said she has been trying this for the past two years, but couldn’t find time to get her pictures clicked.

So as the camera rolled, Das came down from her hotel in the heart of the Big Apple, near Central Park, and started strolling around like a commoner.

While the photographer clicked from different angles, Das pranced around like a college girl up and down the street, by a lamp post, a cross a traffic signal.

Can you dance a bit for me, the photographer said. Das happily obliged. This is a rare photograph, he said. At the photographers request, she even stopped in the middle of a road to get a photo in the backdrop of vehicles.

Can you expect me to do this in Delhi, Mumbai or any other Indian city, Das said indicating that she would be literally mobbed there.

Daughter of noted painter Jatin Das, Das isn’t just an actor. She said she wants to work for the people and issues which are related to the masses. This is the reason why she is associated with several non-governmental organizations.

This year, she said she has signed for four films, though none of them are mainstream Bollywood movies. All four are regional filmsSivan’s Kerala – Road To The Sky, Chitra Palekar’s Marathi film Maati Maaye, Suman Ghosh’s Bangla film Padakkhep and K.N.T. Shastri’s Telugu film Kamli–The Daughter. Her latest film Provoked by Jagmohan Mundhra was released recently.

Of her new projects, Das said she was specially excited about Padakkhep where she is acting alongside Soumitra Chatterjee. The film deals with generation gap and Chatterjee plays Nandita’s father. With Kamli–The Daughter, Das is making her debut in Telugu movies. The film is based on the Lambada tribe of Andhra Pradesh and is directed by film journalist turned director KNT Sastry, who earlier made award winning Tiladaanam.

During her recent trip to the US, Nandita among others attended the annual conference of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and meetings of several NGOs here who are either working at the grass root level in India or sending funds for developmental works in the rural and backward areas of the country.