Gargi bites the yatra dust

Finally, another one bites the dust. That’s Gargi Roy Chowdhury. On Fri-day, the day of rathayatra, vernacular dailies were full of yatra ads, and Gargi’s face was pretty prominent among a host of other TV stars.
Two years back, when she was returning to the stage, we had got talking at the South Club lawns over a couple of fish fries— done in the anglo-bangla style, with enough batter and a chunk of well marinated bekti inside. She was doing the central character of an adapted Brechtian play directed by Ramaprasad Banik,then. The fish-fry was tasty, and it was, as always a treat to be with a sweet lady with the periodic plonk of raquet hitting ball in the background. A pleasing experience.
One of the points that we discussed that day centered round the prospects of her trying out a Chitpore venture, now that, after Tollywood, she had thought of returning to Academy again.
Gargi, as is typical of her, had played her cards cautiosly. “Let us see,” is all that she had allowed.
However, a couple of years down the line, and I see her well entrenched into the Chitpore brigade— hogging a half page colour ad with Subhashis, rubbing shoulders with Kanchan Mullick and Chandreyee Ghosh, Locket Chatterjee, Abhishek Chatterjee among others. All of them her colleagues. Some also yatra veterans.
So? I call her and ask. You too finally bite the dust.
“Oh, the requests were coming for quite some time, but I had decided to join yatra only in 2008.”
Why? Anything special about 2008?
“Because that gives me a chance to prove that it is not always an out-of-work actor who take a yatra offer. Am working in main roles in three megas, and here I am doing a yatra too,” she answers.
But what about the fatigue? Rehearsals are to start in August and she will have to finish her episodes well in advance for the shows, which will start around October.
“True, but I have six hours extra every day. You see, I don’t have a family to look after. The only thing I do is work, right? So why shouldn’t I work more?” she throws back the question at me. “Besides, am not doing films you see.”
What she left unsaid was something else. A few days back, when I was interviewing Prosenjit Chatterjee, he had indicated how yatra offers come pouring in when a star has less work. His point though was different. He was explaining why a film star should fight shy of yatra offers even during hard times. That interview was published a couple of weeks back.
And here was Gargi, bringing up the same topic.
Hello, who was she getting even with?
Nobody perhaps, because she has already said she is not doing films after all. Gargi plays her cards real cautiously.