SINGAPORE — She came to fame playing an iconic character in India’s history, Phoolan Devi, in the controversial hit movie Bandit Queen. But these days, Seema Biswas is taking on a role that is less controversial — the mother of an ex-convict who tries to re-connect with life after prison in A Yellow Bird, directed by Singaporean K Rajagopal.

“I got to know about the director through the short films that he had done,” said Biswas over the phone. “When he sent me the script, I really liked it and I was quite excited to do the film with him. The script is very tender, sensitive and very realistic. It talks about the crisis of space — whether it’s a mental space or physical space — and human relationships and emotional trauma. It’s something that one can relate to, whether or not you’ve experienced that in the past.”

For his part, Rajagopal was very happy to have someone of her stature in his first feature film and acting alongside local actors such as Sivakumar Palakrishnan and Nithiyia Rao, both of whom appeared in his short film contribution to the SG50 film omnibus 7 Letters, which recently hit screens here.

Indian films have always been a source of inspiration for him, particularly the films by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. “He was a film-maker who … started a new wave of Indian cinema back in the 1970s, such as Rat Trap, that were not your typical Bollywood film; (and) Seema was part of that kind of films in the 1990s, such as Bandit Queen,” said Rajagopal, who saw the kind of actress he was looking for in her.

“I wanted a certain kind of look and feel and intensity. I felt this role needed someone who had that,” he said. “For me to have this opportunity to work with her ... it’s really great. She comes from Bollywood but her journey isn’t the same. She comes from theatre, and she’s a person who is open to experiment,” added the director, who himself has a theatre background acting in plays by some of Singapore’s noted theatre practitioners, including Ong Keng Sen and the late Kuo Pao Kun.

While this role might not be as hard-hitting or prominent as some of the roles Seema has done in the past, the award-winning Bollywood actress, who was in town this week to film her scenes, said she still approached it with the same amount of verve as her previous roles.

“I’m always excited to work with different directors, whether the person is known or unknown. I like different stories, different roles and different treatments,” said Biswas. “That’s why I accepted this role. Everything is different, it’s like the first time … that for me, is important. I treat this as my first film and my last film, in a way.

“(Rajagopal) is very passionate, hard-working and very clear about what he wants. He gave me ideas about the kind of woman my character is, what her back-story is and what kind of mental state she had. He told me about his personal experiences and emotional stories ... it was really inspirational. I wanted to do this because the cast and crew is brilliant and I didn’t want to miss this opportunity.”

For Seema, the wish to play a variety of roles isn’t just a matter of personal satisfaction (“I have to listen to my heart,” Seema said), it is also born from her experience working in theatre and her desire not be typecast.

“I remember, just after finishing Bandit Queen, I was offered a role to play someone’s mother, but my director for Bandit Queen, Shekhar Kapur, told me not to do, because I would be typecast into doing mother’s roles all the time,” she recalled.

“People just kept coming to me with mother’s roles. I was even asked to play Amitabh Bachchan’s mother — and I was only, what, 27 at the time! My attitude towards acting is that I don’t like to be slotted into one kind of role. That’s why I enjoy doing all kinds of roles and movies, whether it’s Bandit Queen or Water or Khamoshi or this one.”

Rajagopal said that Seema made the character “more real” thanks to the nuances she would include in the scenes, choosing to do something different because it “made sense” for the character. “I love that kind of thing that she does,” he said. “When you work with someone like that, they always give you that extra bit; you know that they are thinking about the character you want them to play. The emotion, the intensity, how the scenes flow are all scripted, but it’s the little things that actors like her can give that make a scene come to life.”

Rajagopal still has some way to go before A Yellow Bird hits cinemas next year, but the director said he is relishing every moment making it.

“This is my first feature. I’ve done a lot of short films and I’m very excited about (A Yellow Bird) because it’s something I’ve been looking forward to for the longest time,” he said. “It took me about three years to get to this point. I needed to make sure that this was the story I wanted to tell. That took a while to figure out. But it’s finally happened.”