Weekend roundup: Bengali films and celebs who made headline this week

With the buzz surrounding the upcoming Kolkata International Film Festival, Vinci Da’s Tamil remake, the exciting update on Dev’s next film, the Bengali film industry enjoyed quite some action this week. If you have missed the exciting news, gossips or latest developments that have rocked Tollywood, here is a quick look at the weekly roundup for you. Scroll down to have a look at the Bengali movies and stars who made headlines this week.

This year’s Kolkata International Film Festival will see a star-studded inaugural ceremony. A host of stars will grace the event. As we have seen over the past few years, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan will inaugurate the festival at Netaji Indoor Stadium on November 8, while Shah Rukh Khan will be the special guest. The other notable guests at the ceremony are expected to be Jaya Bachchan, Rakhee Gulzar, Mahesh Bhatt and Kumar Shahani. The inaugural ceremony will be attended by international film personalities like German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff, ‘Sex Lies’ and ‘Videotape actress’ star Andie MacDowell and Slovak film director Dušan Hanák.

Dhrubo Banerjee is working on the script of his next film which will star Dev in the lead under the banner of SVF. The director said that even though the story has been finalised, the script has a lot to do. “To be very precise, we are fine-tuning certain things at the moment. Hopefully, I will be able to announce it very soon,” revealed the director. Dhrubo has weaved the story based on true incidents from the Bengal Renaissance. The shoot will commence from December this year.

While his latest ‘Gumnaami’ has ruled the Puja box office, his another blockbuster ‘Vinci Da’ which released earlier this year will now have a Tamil remake. Two-time National Film Award winner G Dhananjayan has bought the rights. The story of Vinci Da is about an obsessed make-up artiste (Rudranil Ghosh), who has been struggling to make his own place in the industry, solely based on his talent and capabilities. Despite his father being a renowned make-up artiste, he could not follow his footsteps. His career took a further dip when his straightforwardness and arrogance resulted in him insulting three big personalities of the industry. However, his life changes forever after the entry of a well-wisher (Ritwick Chakraborty).

While Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee’s latest release ‘Gotro’ continues to win hearts, their previous release ‘Konttho’ is still making the headlines. The film, which celebrates hope and fragility of life while dealing with the subject of laryngeal cancer, had struck the right chord with the audience receiving rave reviews since its release in May. And now, the film is set for its Bangladesh release on November 8. Jaya Ahsan’s presence in the cast is definitely an added advantage for Window. ‘Konttho’ was hailed from all quarters for its immaculate execution and heart-warming concept. ‘Konttho’ revolves around a radio jockey, who gets diagnosed with Stage IV laryngeal cancer. The film stars Shiboprosad Mukherjee, Paoli Dam, and Jaya Ahsan in lead roles, and is produced by Windows Productions. While Shiboprosad himself plays the radio jockey, Paoli Dam essays his wife Pritha. Jaya Ahsan plays the role of a speech therapist.

Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) has already been plagued into controversies with Devashish Makhija directed ‘Bhonsle’ being removed from the festival’s website. And now, yet another film, ‘Patnagarh’ from Odisha, was dropped from movie screening. Directed by Rajesh Touchriver the film is based on the parcel bomb explosion case in Patnagarh of Bolangir district of Odisha. Sources close to the development claims the film was removed from the list at KIFF due to a legal notice from the family members of Soumya Sekhar Sahu, who was killed in the explosion. Soumya’s family members have alleged in the notice neither the film’s director nor the producer informed them before making ‘Patnagarh’.

Indrasis Acharya loves to go deep inside human emotional crises to explore them the way they are in reality. That’s what he did in his previous films ‘Biloo Rakkhosh’ and ‘Pupa’. He wants to narrate human stories which can stir the mind without going emotionally overboard. Indrasis’ third directorial ‘Parcel’ is no exception. It has already made movie lovers talking about it for the ensemble casting. It recently received two festival laurels - the 14th Jogja NETPAC Asian film festival in Indonesia and the Diorama international film festival in Delhi. And now, yet another festival selection but this time in his own city. ‘Parcel’ has been officially selected at the Kolkata International film festival for Indian Language competition section. The film stars Saswata Chatterjee, Rituparna Sengupta, Sreela Majumder, Ambarish Bhattacharya and Daminee Basu among others.