Subrat Dutt keyed up for Ram Gopal Varma's Rakta Charitra

The acclaimed actor is banking a lot on his role in the dark, brooding trilingual movie on the life of a slain political leader from the Varma's banner. In fact, the director stretched his role keeping Dutt specifically in mind.

"Initially I was supposed to shoot for 18 days, but eventually it was extended to 45 days as Ramuji added new dimensions to my role and acting," Dutt, who hails from Bankura in West Bengal, said.

"In Rakta Charitra, I play an aggressive character, but not negative or dark in the conventional sense," he said.Dutt, who is also acting in a television serial for Yash Raj Films, titled 'Powder', will not, however, reveal much about his portrayal of an IPS officer who heads a team trying to bust a drug scam in this serial.

On 'Madholal', which fetched him the huge honour at Cairo, Dutt says it was really a challenge for him to portray the character. It is the story of a slum dweller who is a go-getter in life.

His happy family life is turned topsy turvy after he suffers injury in a terrorist blast. The film dwells on the changes the accident brought into his life. "The character was so unlike me, but I gave my best shot at it. Still, the award in Cairo came as a surprise to me," the actor, who missed the award ceremony because of an earlier-fixed outdoor shooting for Bengali film 'Achin Pakhi', said.

Coming to 'Achin Pakhi', he said it had certain subtle touches with dollops of poetic elements - a hallmark of a thinking Bengali director like Anjan Das.Heaping praise on Das' ability as a director, Dutt said he crafted some real gems in Bengali cinema like Sanjhbatir Rupkathara and Iti Srikanta.

Dutt, who had quit MBA to join the National School of Drama, Delhi and plunged fulltime into acting in the 90s, also acted in Buddhadev Dasgupta's 'Uttara', Suman Mukherjee's 'Chaturanga' (Rabindranath Tagore) and Subrata Sen's 'Bibar' (Samaresh Basu).
"I will not say I have faced the most challenging role yet. The thirst should keep my going as an actor, either in commercial or offbeat films," Dutt said.