Weekend Roundup: From Dev to Nusrat Jahan; the newsmakers of Bengali cinema this week

If you have missed the exciting news, gossips or latest developments that have rocked Bengali cinema this week, here is a weekly roundup for you. Take a look:

Actor-MP dev has been actively helping people amid the pandemic and even took the initiative help many migrant workers from Nepal to return home. He also helped a few migrant workers stranded in Kashmir to return to their homes in Ghatal and arranged special flights for students stranded in Russia. “If we don’t stand by people now in this crisis, when will we?” asked Dev, who also helped a COVID-19 patient (a stranger) secure admission in a hospital. Recently he announced another initiative on social media: “Just converted my MP office at Debra into an isolation camp, so that it’s put to better use. Hope this helps some people. I feel this is the right time when most of the party offices of all political parties can be put to the use of the people. Just saying. (sic)”

The tension simmering between the Federation of Cine Technicians & Workers of Eastern India and West Bengal Motion Picture Artist’s Forum came to a head this week, with the forum declaring that it’s reverting to its autonomous status. The forum declared through a Facebook post late this evening that it will no longer be affiliated to the federation and will function as an autonomous body representing the interests of artistes. The post, that ended saying that the forum is informing all its members through Facebook because the situation arising out the COVID-19 pandemic, had working president Shankar Chakraborty and joint secretary Shantilal Mukherjee as signatories. The forum was formed as an autonomous body but went on to get affiliated to the federation in 2011.

The West Bengal government will extend financial help to single screen cinema halls that were devastated during cyclone Amphan in May. In a government order issued on Friday, it was announced that there will be an aid of Rs 2 lakh for those theatres that ‘suffered major structural damage’ and Rs 1 lakh to those that suffered ‘partial structural damage’ due to Amphan. So far, eight halls, including Rupmandir Cinema Belghoria, Banirupa Berachampa, Elora Champahati, Lila Cinema Baruipur and Sulekha Cinema Hall, Magrahat, have been identified for financial assistance. Later, others will be identified as well.

Shieladitya Moulik’s next film, Chheledhora, will go on the floors from October. The film stars Jaya Ahsan, Anuradha Mukherjee, Prantik Banerjee and Ishaan Majumdar in the lead. The story revolves around an alcoholic mother’s daughter who gets kidnapped. She gets to see the kidnapper’s son when the incident takes place. After aimlessly chasing the kidnapper, through events of luck she grabs the kidnapper’s son. Music of the film is being composed by Ranajoy Bhattacharjee.

After his first feature film ‘Network’, Saptaswa Basu is all set for his next directorial ‘Pratidwandi’. Saswata Chatterjee once again will be seen in one of the leads. We hear another powerhouse actor Rudranil Ghosh has also joined the cast. According to the director this will be his tribute to Satyajit Ray. Saswata will be seen as Dr. Bakshi while Rudranil will play the match teacher Sukumar Sen and both the characters have been plotted against each other. Interestingly, in his previous film Saptaswa had plotted Saswata and Sabyasachi opposite each other and the two acting powerhouses nailed it in the revenge drama. It all starts when Dr. Bakshi’s son gets kidnapped and Sukumar becomes one of the suspects. When investigation starts it’s revealed there were few murders in the city and all are somehow connected to the investigation.

Paayel Sarkar will fly off to London on September 13 to shoot for Kamaleswar Mukherjee’s next film, titled Anusandhan, where she is paired opposite Saswata Chatterjee. The actress along with Saswata will be back in Kolkata on September 24. Saswata, who plays Indra in the film, will be seen working in London. Paayel, who plays Papiya in this film, is happy to work with the director for the third time. “This thriller revolves around Papiya’s crisis in personal and professional life. How Papiya and Indra are related I can’t reveal now as that would give away the storyline of the film,” said the actress.

After Birsa Dasgupta’s ‘Crisscross’, Nusrat Jahan and Gaurav Chakraborty will pair up once again for Sayantan Ghosal’s film, Swastik Sanket which is based on a novel written by Debarati Mukhopadhyay, titled Rudra Priyam. The film will go on the floors from the end of this month and some portions of it will be shot in London too. “This adventure flick is about decoding encryptions. I play a girl who works in a bank and how she writes a book on this after learning it from her grandfather,” said Nusrat while speaking about her character.