His thriller films will make you wide awake with suspense, but for director Sayantan Ghosal, thrillers are essential for a good night’s sleep. “My mother inspired a love for reading right from my childhood. I devoured the detective stories of Feluda and Byomkesh. Even though I graduated in English literature, I have a deep love for Bengali literary works, especially adventures and thrillers. I have to read a thriller every night. I still do. Otherwise I can’t sleep,” says the young director.
His new film Satyanweshi Byomkesh is set to hit theatres on Durga Puja 2019. Interestingly, this is not Sayantan’s first tryst with Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s celebrated sleuth. He was at the helm of Hoichoi TV’s popular Byomkesh web series. While the series starred Anirban Bhattacharya as Byomkesh Bakshi and Subrata Dutta as his companion Ajit, Sayantan has chosen two different leads for his first Byomkesh film. Parambrata Chattopadhyay plays Byomkesh, accompanied by Rudranil Ghosh as Ajit.
How different was it shooting Byomkesh for the big screen, as opposed to the web series? “The biggest difference was in shot taking. The web series was shot keeping in mind that it would be watched mostly on smart-phones. For my film, I’ve gone for more long shots. There is a change in visualization too. Also, Parambrata’s Byomkesh is more politically conscious,” explains Sayantan. Satyanweshi Byomkesh is based on Sharadindu’s story Mognomainak. Sayantan, though, has changed the timeline of the film, to include the Naxal movement that raged across the then Calcutta in 1971.
Check out the official teaser of Satyanweshi Byomkesh.
The script for Satyanweshi Byomkesh was penned by none other than Anjan Dutt, who has himself directed as many as six Byomkesh films. “Anjan-da had written this script many years ago. But then he decided that he wouldn’t make any more Byomkesh films. Impressed with my web series on the detective, he decided to pass the baton to me. Anjan-da has acted as a creative supervisor for this film,” says Sayantan.
From Abir Chatterjee to Jisshu Sengupta, Byomkesh has recently become an oft-portrayed character on Bengali screens. How does the director plan to deal with the inevitable comparisons? “I know Byomkesh has been imagined and re-imagined many times lately. We know there will be comparisons. We are prepared to deal with it. But we wanted to make this film different from the other Byomkesh films. Our target audience is between the ages of 18 and 45, who are used to new web spaces. We have tried to make the film attractive for them,” explains Sayantan.
There’s more good news for fans of the Bengali detective. Satyanweshi Byomkesh is the start of a new franchise. “We plan to make a new Byomkesh film every Puja. Yes, they will have Parambrata and Rudranil,” signs off Sayantan.
The more the merrier, right?
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