Prosenjit on the sets of Kali-Sankar in Puri. Picture by Aranya Sen

The golden streaks in his coloured hair gleam under the sun; his tanned skin has turned a rusty brown in the heat. In tight denims, white full-sleeved shirt, boots and dark glasses, Prosenjit looks like a cowboy, though minus the hat, striding along the Puri beach. He is here to shoot for Prashant Nanda’s Kali-Sankar. The look is a far cry from The Last Lear, where he played a superstar alongside Amitabh Bachchan a few months ago.

Here’s Prosenjit in a look-and-feel talk with t2.

What prompted him to dress this way...

It was important to work on the look for Kali-Sankar. When I read the script I had imagined how Kali (a rough-and-tough guy who spends years behind bars and then comes out to take revenge) would be. I wanted a different hairstyle and costume. So I went to Numaish, a parlour in south Calcutta, where they suggested that I colour my hair. Later they insisted on a French beard of the same colour. I think the look suits me as I have tanned a lot too. I’m enjoying the cropped cut as I don’t have to comb my hair often. Experimenting with the look makes the character more believable.

The woman who gave him the wardrobe...

Sarbari Chowdhury. She has done all my costumes in Kali-Sankar. I stick to jeans, shirts and boots in this film. The belt I’m wearing has an eagle embossed on it, while the pendant is a sun.

Why he keeps changing his look...

Changing the look is not necessary, but it’s important. In Swapno, I wore weird glasses and had wavy hair that fell on my forehead, somewhat like Uttam Kumar in his earlier films. In Sangharsha, I had seven different get-ups. In Kali-Sankar, the look is closer to what I had in Refugee. There was a time when I experimented with watermelon, butter and jelly. I would mix the three to get the perfect wound on my face and body.

His most applauded screen looks...

Dosor and Chokher Bali. When I went for the screening of Dosor at Cannes, people kept asking me about Mahendra’s look (above) in Chokher Bali. I think they liked it better.

Bangalibabu & AB

I played myself in Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear. There’s a film within the film, where I am a superstar. I am a Bangalibabu; so I wear only dhoti punjabi in my scenes.
Rituda wanted my wife Arpita to play my wife in the film. If she had agreed, I would have had my real name in The Last Lear. But Aparjita Ghosh Das played my wife.

Acting with Amitabh Bachchan for the first time was a great high. He plays a disciplined and ageing theatre actor.

The scene was such that Bachchan is acting in a film where I’m the hero. But he cannot accept the cheat scenes. He has a tiff with the director over a night scene, which was being shot in the day, and I try to sort things out. We shot for four days in Mussoorie and a day at Bharat Lakshmi Studios.

(Do you think Prosenjit should do only art films now? Tell t2@abpmail.com)