Every time Dibakar Banerjee
decided to make a film, expectations soar. The filmmaker, who last made Shanghai a couple of years ago,
is right now busy giving finishing touches to his upcoming film
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy.
Expectations are growing once
again as the film will see the
iconic Bengali sleuth for the first time on big screen in Hindi. Dibakar spoke to Gaurav Gupta
It has been quite some time that you have completed the shooting of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy but you never disclosed the story. Is that a conscious decision?
Of course it is conscious. (Laughs). I made it a point not to disclose it. I didn’t do it when I announced the film nor will I do it now. The reason is simple. If I disclose which story I will be doing, the audience will lose interest. Author Saridindu Bandopadhyay’s Byomkesh Bakshi is one of the most iconic characters and widely read series of detective stories. So, it’s natural that many will lose interest if I give away the name of the story.
Do you really think that Byomkesh Bakshi has been widely read outside West Bengal?
I do think so. There are so many readers of detective stories in our country and Byomkesh Bakshi is one of the few India detective series that is very popular among people of all age group.
Why did you decide to make a film on Byomkesh Bakshi?
Because it was my childhood dream. (Laughs). It might seem a bit funny but that’s true. As a child whenever I dream of becoming a filmmaker, I always felt that I should make a film on Byomkesh Bakshi. You can say it was my love for this character that made me make a film on Byomkesh Bakshi. It’s like a dream come true. In fact, that’s the reason I decided to buy the right of all the Byomkesh stories. This is the first of the films and I want to see how the audience react to it and then we will decide how to go about it with the rest.
How different will be Byomkesk Bakshi from what the audience have seen so far?
First of all it’s going to be completely different because the audience haven’t seen Byomkesh in Hindi on the big screen. Though a lot of films have been made in Bengali and it has also been done on television the Hindi-speaking audience haven’t seen much of Byomkesh on celluloid. The treatment of the film will be completely different. It’s being made on a huge canvas and I have decided to present Byomkesh in a different way. The film will see a young Byomkesh who is just out of college and is an aspiring detective. It’s his first case and the audience will see how he handles it.
So, it’s the first of the stories in the series?
(Laughs). I won’t say anything. It will kill the suspense.
Have you watched the Byomkesh films that have been made so far?
I decided not to watch any of the films the day I decided to make this film though I have watched them earlier, particularly Satyajit Ray’s Chiriakhana starring Uttam Kumar and the television series starring Rajit Kapoor, which was directed by Basu Chatterjee. It was a conscious decision because I didn’t want to get influenced by others. I even asked Sushant (Singh Rajput) not to watch the films before he started shooting.
Why did you choose Sushant Singh Rajput to play Byomkesh?
Because he was the best who I could think of. I have always felt that Sushant is one of the few actors in today’s times, who are talented, focused and hardworking. He has done a marvellous job and the audience should come and watch him. Initially he was a bit nervous. Wearing a dhoti was difficult for him but within a few day he got into the skin of the character. He even used to wear dhotis at home before he started shooting.
You have also shown the old-world Kolkata, then Calcutta in the film.
That was one of the biggest challenges. We did a lot of research because we wanted to show Kolkata as it was in the 1940’s. We collected a lot of photographic material, how the Bengalis looked at that time, how they dressed, how they combed their hair and looked into every other aspect. Kolkata is the most important character in the film.
Was that the reason you decided to launch the first poster of the film in Kolkata?
Definitely, there are more reasons behind it. As I said we have a very good research team. Not only did we decide to launch the poster in Kolkata but also we set a date of December 20 because this was the very day when Japan made aerial attacks on Kolkata. We decided to launch it at Great Eastern Hotel [now The Lalit Great Eastern], one of India’s oldest hotels because a bomb fell right on the road where the hotel stands. That was in the year 1943 and this has extreme relevance to the film because this was the time when Byomkesh too was on a case somewhere close and trying to hunt down a killer.
You could have easily gone for a big name from Bollywood to play the female lead. Instead, you chose Swastika Mukherjee.
I could have but I felt Swastika’s image went well with the character. At the same time she is Bengali and knows the culture and more than anything I find her extremely talented.
So, you will be making more Byomkesh films…
Yes of course but everything depends on how this film does. Right now my focus is only on this film. (TWF)
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