This is probably the first time a lead actor took social media to officially thank everyone associated with a film while calling the curtain. On 30th May, which marks 7th death anniversary of Rituparno Ghosh, Bollywood actor Celina Jaitly decided to play Tagore’s Sajani Sajani on the piano that was gifted to her by her father. In the special video which has been shot by her husband Peter Haag in Austria, we can see an emotional Celina breaking into tears while remembering Rituparno Ghosh and her parents whom she lost last year. “I tried not to be emotional, but each time Peter would whisper ‘rolling’ I would get a lump in my throat. I have no qualms in admitting that Ram Kamal gave me the most precious gift of my life, and I shall always remember this,” says Celina while talking about the video.
Since Sajani Sajani has been released on Zee5, Celina has been playing the song as lullaby for Arthur. “It was actually Ram Kamal’s idea that I should play the tune on piano for my sons Winston, Viraaj and Arthur. Since I am not a trained pianist so I wanted someone to help me. Thats when he spoke to Aneek Dhar, the young singer and winner of Saregama who recorded everything from his house and I practiced as per his guidance,” shares Celina.
The actor recollects her journey with cast, crew and members of United Nations. She thanked members of press and film industry for giving her a warm welcome. “It was my mom’s last wish that I should return to films, and i couldn’t have asked for a better comeback,” she avers.
Season’s Greetings, a tribute to Rituparno Ghosh is currently streaming on Zee5 Premium and garnered rave reviews from national and international media. Premeired at the prestigious Cardiff International Film Festival last year, the film travelled to seven countries and bagged Best Director award in Rajasthan International Film Festival. The film garnered accolades from film fraternity, from legends like Amitabh Bachchan to Prosenjit Chatterjee, from Abhishek Bachchan to R Madhavan, from Sangeeth Sivan to Sujoy Ghosh, from Jeet Ganguly to Shaan. Produced under the banner of Assorted Motion Pictures and SS1 Entertainment, the film also stars Lillette Dubey, Azhar Khan and Shree Ghatak. Directed by Ram Kamal Mukherjee, the film became India’s first film to collaborate with United Nations under Free and Equal campaign.
Talking about Rituparno Ghosh, Celina says, “Ritu da has definitely blessed me and Ram Kamal for making this film. He wanted to cast me in a movie but I became pregnant. That’s when he mentioned that he is willing to wait till. Unfortunately he passed away few weeks later. His words resonated when Ram Kamal offered me Romita’s character. It was a divine intervention,” she says. Produced by Aritra Das and Shailendra Kumar, the film will be travelling to many national and international festivals. “We were scheduled for many prestigious festivals this year but most of them got cancelled for corona pandemic. I hope we can start the process again as the world heals and we are slowly getting back to our lives,” says Celina Jaitly.