Kohl-lined eyes, simple chandan art, just the right amount of jewellery and the romance of the red Dhakai sari. Parno Mittra brought alive the magical innocence of a bride, a throwback to the effortless elegance of a Bengali bride of a bygone era, in this special shoot shot in a friend’s house in Ballygunge. She later chatted with us about the making of the shoot.

The pictures look stunning!

This was almost recreating Apur Panchali (2014, starring Parno in the breakaway role of Ashima). Gourab (Ganguli) came up with a Bengali bride idea and we have tried to recreate the look of a Bengali bride from the yore. I didn’t even see my face in the mirror when the make-up was being done. After it was done, it felt like we had revisited Apur Panchali. Some of the images have an old Saheb Biwi Golam feel too. I was excited about flash photography and he has extensively done this in Bombay. Flash photography with the bridal look was an experiment for us.

The look is simple and beautiful...

I love this look. If I were to ever get married, this is how I would dress up. I am a minimalistic person. You won’t see me wear too much jewellery. I love the classic styles. I still love wearing my mom’s saris because you don’t get the same thing any more. I like the fact that all the old styles are coming back. Even with Sabyasachi Mukherjee, he uses the classic Bengali bride feel.

Talking of Apur Panchali, what are your memories of the film? Both the look and your performance was appreciated...

It created ripples because people couldn’t recognise me. It is one of my favourite characters and films. All credits to Kaushik Ganguly (director). Even I didn’t know that I could pull it off. To turn me into that character was his vision and also my pretty face (laughs)!

I would never forget the wedding scene. We weren’t using make-up for my character but for this scene, the make-up artist had caked my face. I was relatively new and didn’t voice my opinion too much. Chup chap shojyo kore nitam! (Laughs) The stylist, Suchismita, (Dasgupta) saw me and screamed at the make-up artist. He had to redo the whole make-up!

Any iconic bridal looks from the Satyajit Ray films for you?

Devi is of course iconic. Monihara is beautiful.

Hair and make-up: Mainak Das

Stylist: Surya Shekhar Biswas

Jewellery: Anjali Jewellers