By Ruchika Kher
Mumbai, June 23 (IANS) Seema Biswas is tired of always being taken seriously! After doing strong character based-roles in “Bandit Queen”, “Khamoshi” and “Water”, the talented actress wants to explore the lighter side of cinema.

“I’m very bored of doing serious roles. That’s the only thing that is offered to me every time and I do it each time with utmost dedication and sincerity, but now I’m tired of doing that,” Seema told IANS in an interview.

“This is one reason why I’ve become selective now. I used to do comedy on stage during my National School of Drama days and it used to be fun,” she added.

She has done a role with comic streaks in Deepa Mehta’s “Cooking With Stella”, and is looking forward to more such roles.

” ‘Cooking With Stella’ will soon release in India. I want to do lighter roles like that more often,” she said.

Seema made her Hindi film debut when Shekhar Kapur offered her the lead role in “Bandit Queen”. She later went on to act in films like “Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa”, “Ek Haseena Thi” and “Pinjar” among others.

Rooted firmly in theatre, Seema has also worked in a number of Marathi, Malayalam and Tamil films.

Even though the actress is now looking for roles where she can show her comic timing, she is excited about her forthcoming film “Red Alert - The War Within” where she plays the role of a Maoist.

Asked what attracted her towards this character, she said: “It was a very challenging role and that’s what I liked about it. The story is very strong. I play the role of a woman who is strong and doesn’t fear anything.”

Seema revealed that for her role, she took inspiration from one of her friends who used to be a youth activist.

“For my role, I went through newspaper cuttings and read about people and also took inspiration from one of my classmates when I was in Assam. She used to be a youth activist and later had to go underground,” she said.

“She was a very strong-willed person and very hardworking,” said the 45-year-old.

Talking about the film, Seema said though the issue they are dealing with in the film is relevant and topical, they have not taken sides in the film.

“Through this film we are not taking any sides. We are not supporting anyone because we ourselves don’t know, who is right and who is wrong. We are just telling a story and putting across an issue that needs to be dealt with,” she said.

“Red Alert - The War Within”, directed by Anant Mahadevan, is a film on the Maoist issue. It tells the story about a poor cook, who falls in the Maoist net. The film is slated to hit screens July 9. It also stars Sameera Reddy, Suniel Shetty, Vinod Khanna and Gulshan Grover.

(Ruchika Kher can be contacted at ruchika.k@ians.in)