Aparna Sen remembers being very nervous on the day 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981) premiered in Kolkata’s Elite cinema hall. She sat with the projectionist in his room, making him miserable. “I kept saying this is too loud, that’s too soft. He was indulgent, but, finally, when the film ended and I started fretting about why the audience hadn’t responded, he grew irritable and said, ‘They are all still there, aren’t they? Relax!’” Sen was swamped with applause that day. In 1961, her performance in Satyajit Ray’s Teen Kanya augured a starry future, but with 36 Chowringhee Lane, she had firmly arrived.
Even though Sen never did fully hang up her acting boots, it’s her filmmaking oeuvre—one that includes sharp, compelling films like Mr and Mrs Iyer (2002) and 15 Park Avenue (2005)—that defines her career. With her new film, The Rapist, set to premiere at the Busan International Film Festival (October 6-15), the director says she doesn’t suffer the nerves she once did. After Sati (1989) was pulled from cinemas in a fortnight, she was devastated, but when The Japanese Wife (2010) didn’t reach the audiences she had hoped for, Sen began to distance herself from the reception of her films. She says, “I put in my everything, every ounce of my energy and passion into the film, but I also detach myself from it. I know I have chosen a career which sort of has heartbreak written into it.”
