Good evening sir! Myself Ankita from team LaughaLaughi.

• First of all Subho Naboborsho sir.

Aniruddha – Subho Naboborsho to you too and let me share something that I haven’t said this for a very long time so right now. I’m feeling so pleased. (laughs)

• How are you sir? How’s your life going?

Aniruddha – I’m good and life’s going great, hopefully will be better soon (giggles).

• So Sir how did you become an actor?

Aniruddha – Honestly if I had to go back to those days, it was not by my choice. As a growing up kid back then I always aspired to become a director and writer. So once it happened that we were doing a shoot for FilterCopy for the video named “Every Indian Patient” and one of our actors was missing. So, the crew members suggested me to deliver just two lines and I was very cool with it. I wasn’t a trained actor but it was just a matter of two lines hence I agreed to it. I was working as a producer back then and after we were done with the shoot and it released, people started commenting about me and I don’t know maybe they saw something in me and I was being repeated in other videos and that’s how I realized that I’ve become an actor also.

• So did you have any inspiration?

Aniruddha – That’s the thing! No one inspired me to be an actor. One thing that had always favored me from the beginning was that I was never camera shy. Before even the video released, I did a small role in one of my friend’s short film named “The Tweet” and back in my school days I did theaters but becoming an actor was never the path I chose myself. So, basically the whole reactive self of mine had worked as an inspiration for me.

• Sir, you are an actor, writer and director too. So much talent! Which one do you love doing the most- acting, writing or directing?

Aniruddha –  Ofcourse directing. That’s my ultimate aspiration that at the end of the day I want to make just one film and myself being the director. Be it good or bad, I just want to stand on the film set once as a director.

• You’re a media student, so would you like to share something about the development and growth of media field now-a-days?

Aniruddha – Well, if you ask me about the approach now-a-days, it is very different from the time when I took this field up. As I belonged to a middle class family, there was no access to the knowledge of how the media industry actually functions. My family members belonged from different professions but fortunately with the influence of my  uncle and my brother, I got access to the media world but I feel that the media industry is growing much better as the social media is also working hand-in-hand and yes, there are better and more opportunities and jobs in this field.

• You did so many short videos with FilterCopy and honestly my personal favorite was the one named “ Moms on Social Media”. So, do you find any similarity between the mom in the video and your mom?

Aniruddha – (laughs) Thank you! Yes definitely and that’s the whole point and power of the videos which FilterCopy makes. We make sure that we can connect to the audience out there because they watch the videos. We make characters of fiction which is closer to the reality.

And not only my mom I believe it has to be your mom also (laughs).

• Yes definitely! Your parents too watch your videos surely, so tell me about their reaction after they watch your videos.

Aniruddha – See, honestly as a child I was a very active kid in the field of art but I was not so good in studies so, I remember when I was going to college, my parents were more than happy to send me away because I myself took an effort to choose a stream and join a college of my own choice. But there are moments which really light me up as a son because they really feel proud that I’ve been doing something with so much efforts and I am being showcased largely in the internet and sometimes people out there recognize me so, my parents’ reaction really makes me happy.

(laughs) and continues…. But yes my parents’ gesture towards me hasn’t yet changed a little bit. My father still whacks me up if I don’t turn off the geyser (laughs). And I really do not want them to change.

• Tell me something about your hobbies.

  Aniruddha – I’m basically a hogger of movies and TV shows but something that gives me peace is music.  My other hobby is as I’m a Bengali kid and I’m grown with the ‘para’ culture here, I love to play gully cricket till date and hanging out with my best friends is another thing I love.

• You must really want to work on the big screen so did you get any offers or opportunities?

Aniruddha – Who doesn’t want to work for the big     screen! Yes, there were offers for being in-front of the camera but not behind yet and I’m dying for the latter one and for the former one yes, I had given auditions but failed miserably. (sighs)

• Tell me something about your favorite actor?

Aniruddha – See, for male actors in Hollywood there is Tom Hanks and Jeff Daniels. Coming down to Bollywood movies, there are a lot of names like Rajkumar Rao, Ranveer Singh, Ranbir Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi actually I can’t name all, it’ll be unfair to take one or two names. And coming to female actors again there are a lot of them like Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone and Radhika Apte.

• If you get a chance to work with any of them, what all efforts you’d make ?

Aniruddha – I’d love to direct a few of them and you won’t  believe I’ve this imaginary world of mine where I’ve already directed them (laughs). Suppose if I’m directing Pankaj Tripathi I’d look at him for five to ten seconds and I’ll be like “Sir pehle dekh lene do, kaam toh chalta rahega” (laughs).

• Share something about your upcoming projects and works.

Aniruddha – Haha! My instagram has been flooded with this question almost everyday. The good news is that there is something big coming up and after a long process we’ve thought about how Kolkata is not great as a work culture and how are we going to change or are we all  going to run away from here and take up job somewhere else and so finally we are here with some big content and we are opening a channel here which will be contemporary to short form content. So basically Kolkata will be having it’s first proper short form content platform in the name of ‘Tok Roshogolla’.

• So that means a  big thing is waiting?

Aniruddha – Hopefully! We’ve our fingers crossed and as it will be an open platform, we hope that the youngsters come and get involved where they can explore and contribute. So, all hands open to everyone who wants to come and contribute and show others that we are no less when it comes to hard work and if we are the head of creativity, we know how to get on floor also!

• Thank you so much Sir for having this conversation with us. Sir, two lines about LaughaLaughi.

Aniruddha – Well, firstly the name is quite catchy and it’s great to talk with people who are interested so much into the work they are doing and I’d like LaughaLaughi to keep up with the mode of getting interactive towards more and more with the people who are working under media and I’d love to keep in touch with LaughaLaughi.

Definitely sir! Thank you so much for giving your precious time to us. Have a good day!

By,

Ankita Guha Roy