The most significant romantic arc for Sengupta in 2021 was arguably in Avijatrik (The Wanderer), directed by Subhrajit Mitra. A spiritual sequel to Satyajit Ray’s iconic Apu Sansar , the film follows Apu (played by Arjun Chakrabarty) as he searches for his estranged son. Sengupta reprises the role of Aparna—a character who, in Ray’s original, met a tragic end. However, Avijatrik navigates a speculative space, presenting Aparna alive and reintroducing her as a ghost from Apu’s past. Their reunion is not a jubilant climax but a poignant, almost painful collision of memory and regret. The romance here is defined by absence and longing. Sengupta plays Aparna with a restrained melancholy; her eyes speak of a love that was interrupted by fate and social circumstance. The chemistry between her and Chakrabarty is not fiery but elegiac. When they share the screen, the romantic storyline revolves around the question of what could have been—a love story told in silences, unfinished sentences, and the weight of shared history. For Sengupta, this role reaffirmed her ability to anchor a narrative not through action, but through the sheer gravitational pull of unresolved emotion.

In 2021, National Award-winning actress continued to redefine the "romantic" archetype in Bengali and Hindi cinema, shifting toward mature, nuanced portrayals of companionship rather than conventional young-love tropes . Following her recovery from COVID-19 in Singapore that year, Sengupta returned to the screen with projects that emphasized the emotional complexities of modern relationships. Cinematic Romantic Storylines in 2021