After playing Iago’s wife Emilia in Vishal Bhardwaj’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello, Konkona Sensharma is coming together with Vishal’s Maqbool hero Irrfan in Deadline, directed by Tanvir Khan, the director who did a disastrous desi version of A Beautiful Mind called Madhoshi. “I haven’t seen Madhoshi,” Konkona plays it safe. “But I really liked the script. It’s a 24-hour thriller. Irrfan plays the man who kidnaps my child. Rajit Kapur plays my husband.”

Another thriller, Amavas, is ready. “Now I’m shooting Meridian with Irrfan again! But it also has Arjun Rampal whom I’ve never worked with. It’s being directed by a new director, Vinny Mitra. I can’t reveal anything more. Nowadays every director tells you not to reveal anything. But we’ve been doing a whole lot of rehearsals…. I like doing films that stretch me as an actor.”

Konkona is excited about her mother’s film 15, Park Avenue, which has apparently won the National Award for the best English film. “Shabana and I played sisters. She was meant to be 18 years older. And I come together with Rahul again after Mr and Mrs Iyer. It was a very dramatic film.

I’m really looking forward to going into my mother’s next film. It’s a fun film. It’s a comedy. I’ve done a comedy called Mixed Doubles directed by Rajit Kapur with Ranvir Shorey and Koel Purie. I loved it. I want to do more comedy. And since I’m paired in my mom’s film with Govinda I know I’ll have great fun.”

Incidentally, Soha plays Konkona’s daughter in Aparna Sen’s next film. “I’ve to age from 19 to 40 in this film. Why is my mom making me work so hard? I’m a very lazy actor,” she jokes.

Konkona still dreads doing the big commercial film. “Not that I have been offered any. But I wonder what it entails. I’m to a certain extent intimidated by the idea of a commercial cinema. Page 3 was my first big commercial hit, though it wasn’t really a commercial formula film. It wasn’t really designed as a commercial film,” says the staid young actress.

“I spend my free time reading, seeing movies, visiting friends, I keep travelling a lot especially between Calcutta and Mumbai. Sometimes I forget which city I am in. There’s no man in my life. If there was I’d have spoken openly about it. Right now all I want is for my career to move to a different level.”