National Award-winning actress Geetanjali Thapa, who plays the female protagonist Minnie in the forthcoming film "Bioscopewala", says a person's childhood memories influence and impact his or her personality as an adult in a huge way.
The film "Bioscopewala" revolves around the story of a girl who comes back to her roots and childhood memories of a "bioscopewala", who played an important role in her life to become the person she is.
Sharing an insight into her character in the film, Geetanjali told IANS: "Minnie realises that somewhere the story of a "bioscopewala" influenced her to become a filmmaker.
"Without even realising she got her main influence for filmmaking from this man, who is old now...his story, his journey is unknown to her, she sets out on a journey to find that out as a filmmaker.
"I think this happens to all of us, where our subconscious mind gets influenced to become someone in our grown-up days, from our childhood memories... It shapes our personality."
The story of "Bioscopewala" is an extrapolation of the famous story of "Kabuliwala".
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"In our film, Minnie has grown up and has become a filmmaker in Paris and she comes back to her home and discovered the root behind her passion for storytelling lies in her childhood," she added.
So, was there any such influence that Geetanjali had from her childhood?
"My upbringing makes me the kind of person I am today. I cannot really specify one incident in that manner, but we had a teacher in school who used to encourage me to read books... Not really textbooks, but storybooks.
"There is a world inside stories, and I think that helped me to develop an interest in reading and narrating stories in whichever medium I do today," she said.
She says her first film never released. But meeting a few good people in Mumbai and going for auditions changed her life.
Like many newcomers in the big city Mumbai, she also went through initial struggle.
"There are times when people said that I do not look Indian enough to be a part of Indian film industry, beyond one point. But hey, here I am," said the actress from Gangtok, Sikkim.
Starting her career in 2012 with "I.D.", the actress won a National Film Award for her work in "Liar's Dice". She also appeared in film like "Tigers", "Trapped" and "Kuchh Bheege Alfaaz".
"Bioscopewala" features some of the finest actors of the film business -- Adil Hussain, Danny Denzongpa and Tisca Chopra. Geetanjali said going through an extensive workshop helped her to find a comfort level among all the actors.
"I have no formal training and I am a forever nervous person by nature. So, it was important for me to find myself in a comfort zone.
"These people really helped me to deliver my best, because at times an actor feels intimidated before senior actors. But we worked really well as a team," said Geetanjali, who has earlier worked with well-known filmmakers like Onir and Vikramaditya Motwane.
Directed by Deb Medhekar, the film "Bioscopewala" is releasing on Friday.
--IANS
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