by Vinayak Chakravorty (HT)

<img src="http://202.131.142.25/Web/Photographs/2004/12/07/101/07_12_2004_101_007_006.jpg" align="left">Rituparna Sengupta. In saddi Dilli, the name needs an introduction. Let's put it this way: If Tollywood (the Bangla film industry) ever had a jawaab to Madhuri Dixit, Ritu's that girl.

So, ek aur Bong bombshell Madhuri Dixit banna chahti hai? The film in question -- Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh -- is directed by Chandan Arora, the man who made Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon last year. She's had her brush with Hindi cinema in the past, but those were all forgettable Mithun films.

Better late than never? Ritu, by the most lenient guesstimate, must be pushing 30. "I was never serious about a film career, leave alone Bollywood. I did the few Hindi films I was offered, but couldn't camp in Mumbai long enough because the Bangla hits kept coming. I guess I'm lucky to be a star. Bollywood needs the right approach, great PR, a media-savvy image. I've never done these things in Kolkata," she says.

Like all those Bangla hits, Arora's heroine-oriented film co-starring Rajpal Yadav, also "happened by chance" to her. "I'm the only girl in the film, and the plot revolves around me. I guess this was the right role to make a serious foray into Hindi cinema." Is it awkward for a superstar (which she is in Tollywood) to enter Bollywood as a nobody? "I always think of myself as a newcomer trying to learn," she says. "Stardom brings too many complications with it. For an actor it is best to keep moving on in life." Ritu's a producer too. After several Bangla blockbusters, she's now planning to produce one in Hindi, to be directed by Gulzar. "Talks are on. It should be an interesting film, if and when it happens" she says.

She's also happy running her dance production house in Kolkata, which does mostly fusion dance. "And if I still get time, I write whatever comes in my mind," she says. "Maybe I'll put it together in the form of a book someday."