Having bagged a National Award already for her performance in the 2014 Konkani film Nachom-ia Kumpasar, Palomi Ghosh is no stranger to fame or Goa. The actor-singer was recently seen in Sujoy Ghosh’s must-spoken-about horror series Typewriter, which was also set in Goa, but this time instead of enthralling with a melody, Palomi gave the audience a scare.
“I have this strange connection with Goa. People say I might have a past life connection to the area. I keep getting projects offered from there. In fact, now I speak fluent Konkani as well,” she says with a laugh. On working in the horror genre, Palomi says, “I was never apprehensive about doing Indian horror because the director and writer was Sujoy Ghosh. He’s so good with thrillers and he knew what he was doing. So, I never doubted that this would turn out to be a cliched Bollywood scary movie.” She goes on to add that there have been good horror films in Hindi cinema as well such as Kaun. “Films that focus on the human and psychological elements are far more scary than the ones with apparitions and gore. They are more eerie to me at least. But these are few and far between. Most movies end up using common tropes and jump scares making it very predictable.” The actor admits that she enjoys watching horror movies as a genre as well. “I am not one of those who avoids watching scary films. I’ve seen them all—Conjuring, The Shining, It. I feel there’s something creepy about clowns. But I like watching them with friends rather than seeing it alone,” she admits.
Palomi currently has quite a few films in the pipeline, including Satellite Shankar, Kadak and another show on AltBalaji titled Mission Over Mars. “It’s not a conscious decision to not do mainstream work. I choose what I can relate to. What’s important for me when I’m offered a project is how much do I relate to the story. Having said that I would love to do a song and dance number. I am one of the wildest dancers in my circle of friends. I have done singing and acting, and all that is left to do is dancing and I would to incorporate all three in one single project,” she says heartily.
On her wishlist of filmmakers and actors, Palomi says, “I’m not being diplomatic but I’ll work with anyone who has a great story. When it comes to choosing roles all I look for is variety. But I’m keen on working in regional films. I’m probashi (non-native) Bengali but I have done a Bengali film called Onek Diner Pore that was directed by Debarati Gupta. I started my journey with the regional Konkani film Nachom-ia-Kumpasar. I can’t wait to do more such intimate stories on screen.”
The actor-singer also has plans of releasing her first music album later this year. She has sung in Mira Nair’s musical stage adaption of Monsoon Wedding. “I was asked by Mira Nair during a London screening if I would like to play the part of Lorna and of course I agreed,” she says about her musical projects.