Prosenjit Chatterjee: Actors today are not chasing stardom alone; they’re chasing variety

Prosenjit Chatterjee, fondly known as Bumba da, has long been a pillar of Bengali cinema, balancing commercial hits with bold, unconventional roles. Now, with over 350 films behind him, he’s looking beyond boundaries — embracing new languages, younger teams, and stories on a national scale.

In this candid chat with Bombay Times, the veteran actor reflects on reinvention, letting go of the comfort of stardom and learning from the next generation.‘Now I want to act in films that have a national scale’Prosenjit recently impressed the audience in Khakee: The Bengal Chapter and is ready to broaden his horizons. He says, “I have always embraced challenges; there was a period when I was doing six to eight shifts a day, with 17 to 18 releases a year.

My highest was 26, a world record, I later learnt from a fan club. We never kept track back in the day.” Today, he remains as eager as ever for new roles. He shares, “I tell my directors to bring me something that is out of the box.

Now I want to act in films that have a national scale.”‘It’s hard for a commercial actor to let go of seetees and taalis’Letting go of the larger‑than‑life image built through commercial cinema was not easy.

He says, “The most difficult part for an actor who has found success in commercial films is letting go of the seetees and taalis. You may be willing to give up a lot, but not that curtain call. When a villain walks in and approaches the heroine, the crowd expects the hero to storm in and save her, and they love that moment. So, I had to consciously shed that baggage and recondition my thinking,” he says.He adds, “I experimented constantly because I believed that in ten years the language of cinema would change — and I wanted to evolve too.

I’m not in a race, which is why I’m branching out into Punjabi and Marathi cinema.”

‘The Bengali industry depended on me for two decades’Ask him why he didn’t make the shift earlier beyond Bengali films, and he replies, “Back then, the Bengali industry depended on me; it was not just about hits, but also a responsibility toward producers, directors and technicians. If I went on a 20‑day outdoor trip, I would get calls saying ‘Dada, aap nahi hain to chhe-chhe shifts nahi ho rahe hain’.

So, I stayed.” He continues, “Being number one in any industry is not easy.

If I had come to Mumbai and ended up as number ten, I would have felt I was letting down my Bengali audience who believe I’m their number one.”‘Nawaz was the first to break the typical Indian-hero mould’Prosenjit, who has been a part of OTT shows like Jubilee and Scoop, is deeply inspired by the new generation. He says, “So many of them deliver great performances, not just in Hindi, but across all industries.

I wonder, ‘Yeh log kaise acting kar rahe hain!’ That drives me to keep evolving. Acting has changed and cinema has changed. You either say, ‘Main aap logon ka pitaji hoon, main ghar par rahoonga’, or you work with younger teams and learn new things.

I choose the latter.”He especially praises Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Rajkummar Rao. “Nawaz was the first to break the typical Indian-hero mould; he changed the game. And now there are many such actors. Rajkummar, too. The actors today are not chasing stardom alone; they are chasing variety,” he notes.