Weekend Roundup: Bengali celebs and movies which made the headlines

Be it Dev’s involvement in a noble cause, Rahul Bose’s comments on current Bengali cinema, Soumitra Chatterjee teaming up with Anik Dutta, latest update on Mainak Bhaumik’s next film or Sudiptaa Chakraborty joining ‘Jyeshthoputro’ cast; ; as the week came to an end, there are so many exciting updates from Tollywood. In case you missed all these, we present to you Bengali cinema's 10 of the most exciting news from this week. Scroll down and enjoy your daily dose of entertainment.

Rajorshi Dey’s upcoming paranormal thriller ‘Purba Pashchim Dakshin (Uttor Asbei)’ is based on Avik Sarkar’s best-selling book ‘Ebong Inquisition’. His two already completed films ‘Birpurush’ and ‘Subho Noboborsho’ are yet to be released but that doesn’t put Rajorshi in a dilemma. The film has already hit the floors. It’s mostly being shot in and around Kolkata and Purulia. The upcoming thriller has an ensemble cast including Rudraprasad Sengupa, Arpita Chatterjee, Kamaleshwar Mukherjee, Gaurav Chakrabarty, Rajesh Sharma, Padmanava Dasgupta, Bidipta Chakroborty, Anyann Bhowmick. Rajorshi has one more surprise as his third venture will also see India’s first transgender college principal Manabi Bandopadhyay in a pivotal role.

Rahul Bose always chooses his words very carefully. Just like his acting or directorial or the causes he loves to associate himself with. As a matter of fact, acting has saw him flourishing in films from different languages – be it Bengali, Kannada, Tamil or Malayalam. However, most of his regional films have been in Bengali. During a recent media interaction the versatile actor, also a former national rugby player, shared his thoughts on the current scenario of Bengali cinema. “The middle-of-the-road cinema is receiving great response in Bengal these days. It actually started with my very first film ‘Anuranan’ which attracted the viewers – not only the upper-class but also the middle and lower class – to the theatres. That film was a landmark. It spawned around 20 directors, interestingly who all are making movies for the urban people,” said the popular actor.

Tota Roy Choudhury and Bollywood actor Rohit Roy is teaming up for a dark love story titled ‘Arokto’. This Bengali film also marks the directorial debut of Journalist-turned-communication expert Arindam Basu. Bangladeshi actress Orin will be seen as the female lead along with Mallika Banerjee and Debaprasad Haldar in pivotal roles. The film was initially titled as ‘Atoshkaanch’ but later it was changed to ‘Arokto’. Produced by Trina Films, shooting for this film starts from mid-December in the North Bengal. While the music is being composed by Savvy, Dibyendu Mukherjee is working on the background scoreand Supratim Bhol is the DOP.

Over the last few years we have seen a number of films that inspire women to rediscover their true selves, their true identity and now debutant director Pritha Chakraborty’s upcoming ‘Mukherjee Dar Bou’ will encourage you to see the relationship between a woman and her mother-in-law from a completely different perspective. Under the banner of Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy’s Windows Production, the emotional family drama is currently being shot in and around Kolkata. ‘Mukherjee Dar Bou’ comes with an ensemble cast including Rituparna Sengupta, Konineeca Banerjee, Anasua Majumdar, Badshah Moitra, Aparajita Auddy and Biswanath Basu in pivotal roles. While Anasua will be seen as the mother-in-law, Rituparna plays a psychologist in the film.

The motion poster of Anik Dutta’s ‘Bhobishyoter Bhoot’ has already become a hit on social media with industry biggies and fans as well going gaga over the upcoming dark comedy. Now, according to industry sources Anik has started working on another film which revolves around an elderly man who is bowed down by the social norms. The yet untitled social drama is based on late writer Ramapada Chowdhury’s story and stars Soumitra Chatterjee in the lead.

After a series of films with love, humour and satirical overtones in ‘Bibaho Diaries’, Ghare And Baire’, ‘Happy Pill’ and ‘Generation Aami’, filmmaker Mainak Bhaumik will make his mark in a completely new genre. Mainak’s upcoming is a thriller titled ‘Borno Parichay’ and what’s more interesting is it stars Jisshu Sengupta and Abir Chatterjee in the lead, while Priyanka Sarkar plays the female lead. To handle the stunt sequences, a famous Bolywood stunt director Sunil Rodrigues has been hired who has directed a lot of action stunts of Shah Rukh Khan films. He has been a key part of ‘Zero’, ‘Kedarnath’, ‘Pari’, ‘Mukkabaaz’ and many other Bollywood films.

Prosenjit Chatterjee has already started preparing for his next with Srijit Mukherjee. The hit director-actor pair is all set to return with one of the most talked about subjects in recent times where Prosenjit will play Gumnami Baba, the mysterious sadhu from Ghaziabad, who was rumoured to be Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in disguise. There are so many rumors and conspiracy theories on Netaji's return to India after his supposed death in Taihoku plane crash. Srijit’s upcoming film’s plot is one of those rumours which apparently set the crux of the film. To prepare for the role of this mysterious Gumnami Baba, Prosenjit has already started gaining weight as he is trying to eat as much as possible but the Tollywood superstar is in no hurry now.

Indrasis Acharya’s ‘Pupa’ focusing on a out-of-the-box subject like ‘euthanasia’ or ‘right to die’ has created waves all around while travelling a number of prestigious film festivals. Now the ‘Pupa’ team has yet another reason to celebrate. The emotional family drama has won the Best Feature Film award in International Competition category at the Hyderabad All Lights International Film Festival. ‘Pupa’, starring Kamaleshwar Mukherjee, Rahul Banerjee, Sudiptaa Chakraborty and Pradip Mukherjee in the lead, narrates the mental and emotional turbulence of a confused son struck between his lucrative job in the US and his father- who suffers a brain stroke after his wife’s demise and eventually slips into coma.

We already know Aparajita Auddy had to leave Kaushik Ganguly’s upcoming ‘Jyeshthoputro’ due to some date issues and now we hear Sudiptaa Chakraborty has been roped in to play the female lead. Surinder Films one of the co-producers of the film recently shared the news on social media. Kaushik Ganguly is all set for his next ‘Jyesthoputra’ inspired by ‘Anya Nayak’, a script written by late Rituporno Ghosh. It’s a story of two brothers where the elder brother is a celebrity while the younger brother is a common man. Prosenjit Chatterjee plays the title role of the elder brother and Ritwick will be seen as the younger brother.

Dev is well-known for being experimental with his work these days. But, not only as a producer, the Tollywood heartthrob has a big heart in real life as well and he proved it once again. Recently, the unfortunate news of Bengali film industry’s noted cameraman and cinematographer Shri Baidyanath Basak living in a deprived condition has shocked the film fraternity. However, it’s Dev who took the first initiative to reach out to the veteran artist and provide him the needed help. Not only that, he has also promised a life-long help for Baidyanath Basak. Dev has even planned to open an NGO exclusively for the deprived technicians and artists of Tollywood.