My parents being Bengali, we always had music in our house. My nani was a trained classical singer, who taught my mum, who, in turn, was my first teacher. Later I would travel almost 70 kms to the nearest town, Kota, to learn music from my guru Mahesh Sharmaji, who was also the principal of the music college there.

What I like about Calcutta is the food. I like simple Bengali food like dal, shukto, fish, and mutton.

When I was offered 'Abhijaan,' I didn't know any Bengali. But Satyajit Ray insisted, saying my character spoke a mixture of Bhojpuri, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. I agreed only because he had faith in me.

We even had a different word for Christmas in my language, Bengali: Baradin, which literally meant 'big day.'

Despite the business and auto-rickshaws and bantering Bengalis just beyond his brown front door, Sanjit cultivates a distinct learning environment and energy, one created and galvanized above the tile floors, within the thin walls, below the imperative ceiling fans, and embraced by books.

Even in India the Hindi film industry might be the best known but there are movies made in other regional languages in India be it Tamil or Bengali. Those experiences too are different from the ones in Bombay.