Tannishtha, the wanderer

Tannishtha, the wanderer     When Dev Benegal asked Tannishtha Chatterjee to play a wanderer in his film Road, Movie, produced by Indian Films, it was as if he'd taken a leaf out of Tannishtha's life itself. That's because the actress has travelled the length and breadth of Kenya, Australia, Japan and Delhi where she's grown up and currently finds herself shuttling between New York and Mumbai for work. The actress, who plays a gypsy in the film, was not given a reference point for the the character though. "Dev didn't want a region specific gypsy. His exact words to me were, 'I want you to be the last wonder on this planet'," she recalls with a smile and adds jokingly, "When he said that, I was like 'Okay, how about giving me something tangible to work on'!" And to ensure that there's no region specification, she says, Dev did not give any name to the character as well. "He did show some pictures of the kind of look he requires though. So I had the basic body language in mind," she says. Her gypsy nature is one reason she bonded with co-star Abhay Deol as well. "He's a bit of a wanderer himself and that's very much my style of living too," she smiles. GYPSY GAL: Tannishtha Chatterjee