Kolkata, Jan 10: One of Bengali vis-à-vis Indian cinema’s most influential voices, Aparna Sen, was in conversation at the Oxford Bookstore as part of Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2026 in the session titled ‘Aparna Sen Unplugged’. The session offered an intimate exploration of her journey across cinema, literature, and public thought.
In conversation with filmmaker Suman Ghosh and author-poet Kalyan Ray (also the husband of Aparna Sen), and moderated by Raju Raman, Aparna Sen—affectionately addressed as Rina Di by many—reflected on her evolving creative life. The conversation traversed her early years as an actor, her transition to direction, and her parallel engagement with writing and social commentary through platforms like her editorials in Sananda.
During the session, Aparna Sen articulated her artistic philosophy with characteristic clarity: “The point is to try and communicate and share with other people whatever is on my mind and disturbing me, whatever I find meaningful at that point of time… I don’t want to use cinema as a kind of pulpit for preaching. I’m not a preacher. I’m an artist.” She stressed that cinema need not cover every topic under the sun, but rather should serve as a medium for meaningful exploration of human experience.
The filmmaker shared how deeply personal moments of disturbance fuel her creative process, recalling how Ghare Baire Aj emerged from a sleepless night after journalist Gauri Lankesh’s death. She explained how Tagore’s strongly political novel inspired her to create work reflecting contemporary India’s politics, born from her disturbance about “the way my idea of India was changing right before my eyes.”
When Suman Ghosh asked her to reflect on her body of work and identify which films gave her maximum satisfaction, Aparna Sen offered insights into her debut directorial venture, 36 Chowringhee Lane. She explained her intimate knowledge of Kolkata, “I knew all the sounds, I knew what the light was like at certain times of day,” before emphasising cinema’s unique expressive power, “…It can be a hand lying in a shaft of light that is coming through the window, and that hand can become very expressive. So cinema is not just telling the story and talking about these people and their lives.”
Kalyan Ray offered a unique insider’s perspective on Aparna Sen’s creative process, having witnessed the genesis of several of her films from Yugant onwards. He spoke of the delicate balance in artistic creation between “…the inner eye, which is a very private area from which creation starts, and then there is the awareness of the world around.”
The session explored whether it is a filmmaker’s duty to take stands on issues or simply raise questions. Aparna Sen’s response was nuanced: she acknowledged making politically engaged films like Arshinagar and Ghare Baire Aj when deeply disturbed by contemporary events, while maintaining that her approach is exploratory rather than prescriptive.
Guided by Raju Raman’s thoughtful moderation, ‘Aparna Sen Unplugged’ offered audiences a rare and candid engagement with a multifaceted creative voice who approaches each film, as she noted, “always with the approach of a first-timer.”