KOLKATA: National Award-winning director Kaushik Ganguly is set to helm his first Hindi film, “Manohar Pandey” and the filmmaker says making the pandemic-set movie in the language is “only incidental”.
The director is known for acclaimed films in Bengali cinema such as “Shabdo”, “Chotoder Chobi” and “Nagarkirtan”, “Cinemawala”, and “Bishorjan”, among others.
Ganguly further said he is averse to branding “Manohar Pandey” as his Bollywood debut.
“This should not be called as Kaushik Ganguly’s first Bollywood film. Yes, I have chosen the language Hindi for the first time as my characters are Hindi speaking. Had there been main Bengali characters, it would have been made in Bengali. Here the subject is important, not the language,” the 52-year-old director said.
According to Ganguly, the film deals with the impact of lockdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic on the life of a middle class Hindi speaking couple living in the city. It stars Raghubir Yadav in the title role, along with Supriya Pathak Kapur and Saurabh Shukla.
Ganguly, however, said making the film in Hindi medium would allow it to reach out to a bigger audience.
“There is a sizeable Hindi speaking population from north India in parts of central and north Kolkata and in the Naihati-Titagarh belt. They had been living here for ages. I thought why not choose my protagonist from these people,” he said.
“Manohar Pandey” is produced by Nispal Singh and Surinder Singh under the banner Surinder Films Pvt. Ltd. (AGENCIES)
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