Kseniya Ryabinkina back to Bollywood after 40 years
Kseniya Ryabinkina, a Russian actress who played a major role in Raj Kapoor’s 1970 film Mera Naam Joker is back with another Bollywood film named Chintuji. It’s almost 40 years after which the actress is making another Hindi film. With a weak heath due to age, the actress has quietly shot for film on the outskirts of Himachal Pradesh.
Ranjit Singh is directing the film while, Bobby Bedi is co-producing it. Talking about the experience he shared working with Kseniya, Bedi said, “We shot with her in a village Paragpur on the outer edge of Himachal Pradesh, a two-hour drive from Chandigarh. It was a delighting shooting with her.”
It was not easy to rope in the actress as nobody had her contact information. “We got in touch with the Russian Film Commission and the Kapoors had a few contacts in Russia. We contacted her and she thankfully agreed. Chintuji is so close to Rishi that he has dedicated the film to his father and we are going to make a mention of that before the film begins,” added Bedi.
In Mera Naam Joker, Raj Kapoor played role of a joker for a circus. However for the same circus Kseniya played role of Marina, a Russian trapeze artiste. So the character of Raj Kapoor falls in love with her, despite having the language barrier and dreams of to marry her. But his heart breaks when Marina goes back to her country with the end of circus.
