Shooting for Byomkesh was like a picnic

The cast members of Anjan Dutt's Byomkesh Phire Elo dig up the fun moments during the making of the film.
The drama is set to unfold as Anjan Dutt gears up to unveil his much anticipated film, Byomkesh Phire Elo, based on Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay's Beni Sanghar. Meanwhile, the cast members share some of their memorable moments on the sets, their experience of working with Dutt, his style of filmmaking et al. Read on...

Biswajit Chakraborty:
Not just this film, I've been associated with Anjan on many other projects in the past. A mature story like Beni Sanghar required a mature director like him, who understood the nuances, could read between the lines and deal with it accordingly. One of the other attractions of working with Anjan has always been good food. He is a great cook and so is his wife. Every other day we would either order for food or someone would get it from home. The film sees me playing the victim, Benimadhab, who gets murdered. The day we were shooting the scene, we managed to wrap up just before the lunch break. I could smell the food. I rushed to join others, without even bothering to remove my make-up -blood stains and all. It was a sight to behold -a dead man eating!

Kaushik Sen
Usually I take time to open up. So, I used to concentrate on the film more. It's a dark film that revolves around a very complicated family, wherein the relationships are also very complex and intriguing. There's another actor, Subhra Sourav, who plays an important role in this film. He is from my theatre group, Swapnasandhani. There was a scene, where we had a violent confrontation. Subhra was not comfortable enacting in my presence. To him, I had always been his director and he, my student.The best part about Anjanda, as a director, is that he takes care of everyone of the sets and seeing Subhra falter, he immediately gauged the situation. He asked me to motivate him and make him understand that I, too, after all, was just his co-actor in the film. Later, Subhra gave a brilliant shot. It was a proud moment for me as well.
In Picture: Subhra Sourav and Ena Saha

Anjana Basu:
Besides the regular feasts on the sets, what I appreciate most about Anjanda is that he's open to ideas. This was the first time I acted in any of his films. Still, he encouraged my suggestions. For an actor, that means a lot. He's an emotional person and his involvement in the project was awe-inspiring.
(In picture: Anjana in a scene from Byomkesh)

Rahul
It was an elaborate picnic of sorts. Every day was fun day . Since we were shooting in north Calcutta, we would binge on pulao, kosha mangsho, shorbot and sweets from all the popular shops around. As most of us were foodies on the sets, we would decide on the day's menu first and then start shooting for the film. I had a lot to take back home from this venture.Anjanda is a great director and I went for a workshop with him before he actually started canning the film. It gave me a new perspective on how an artiste should think and what should be his approach during the entire process of filmmaking.
(In picture: Locket and Rahul in a scene from Byomkesh)

Saswata Chatterjee
Working with Anjanda is a great experience. Though this is my third Byomkesh film as Ajit, I'll be there in only two or three scenes. As per the story , editing work keeps Ajit busy and therefore and he can't get involved in the case directly.However, what really touched me was that Anjanda made an extra effort to write a scene specially for me in this one -to not only maintain continuity of my character but also to establish why Ajit is an intrinsic part of Byomkesh and Satyabati's lives. It's never been explained in any of the original Byomkesh stories. I think it's a pertinent question that can arise in any viewer's mind. And that is definitely one of the highpoints of the film.
(In Picture: Saswata with Ushasie)

Ankita:
I play Medini, who works as a cook at Benimadhab's house.Since my character hails from Bihar, I ought to wear a lot of glass bangles in the film. There's a scene where I try to raise my voice for the first time and my husband, Meghraj, beats me up.After the shot, I realized that a few bangles were broken and my wrist was bruised. Anjanda kept pulling my leg, saying, `Meyeta maar-i kheye gelo puro film-e'.

Koustuv Ray:
We had to face a lot of ups and downs while making the film. I went through a huge financial crisis. It was Anjan Dutt, who bailed me out at that time and helped me complete the project.Now that the problems have been resolved and the film is ready to hit the theatres, I'd like to express my gratitude to Anjanda. We wish to work together in the future as well.