Tollywood Roundup: Bengali celebs who made headlines this week

Be it the craze surrounding the film ‘Uronchondi’ or Sayantika Banerjee and her ex-flame Joy Mukherjee’s latest brawl or Dev’s new announcement about his next ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’ or Arijit Singh’s first film as director; it was a week full of rumours and exciting news from the Tollywood industry. Here we give you a round-up of Bengali cinema's ten most exciting news from this week.

Srijato Bandopadhyay won millions of hearts with his stellar performance in Parambrata Chatterjee’s recently released film ‘Shonar Pahar’. Despite an ensemble cast including big names like Tanuja, Jisshu Sengupta, Parambrata Chatterjee, it’s the child actor Srijato who masterfully anchors the emotional drama. It looks like he is already a star in the making. His character of a 7-year-old Bitlu is the latest addition to Bengali cinema’s tradition of natural and utterly sweet child actors.

‘Uronchondi’ narrates the story of four different people who embark on a journey together. There are so many instances in our society where women from a very young age confront oppression, torment and debauchery. The characters Chitra Sen, Sudiptaa and Rajnandini portray the faces of such women who eventually stand up for themselves after facing years of abuse and repression. ‘Uronchondi’ is Abhishek Saha’s first film as a director and slated for a release on August 3.

Biswanath Basu is all set to don a new look in Surajit Mukhopadhyay’s upcoming film ‘Che’. The popular actor will sport a hilarious curly hairstyle for this satirical comedy flick. The plot of the film revolves around a young man named Che whose father was a huge admirer of Che Guevara. So, he named his son Che inspired by the revolutionary figure. Sadly, Che’s mother died when he was at a tender age and he is also quite different from others. His unique hairstyle often gets him trolled but Che secretly desires a girl in his locality. What happens next forms the crux of the film.

Bollywood scriptwriter Shagufta Rafique is all set for her directorial debut with a Bengali film titled ‘Seven’. Touted to be a horror film, it will have Yash Dasgupta and Nusrat Jahan in the lead. The pair last shared screen space in 2016 action hit ‘One’. So far just the lead pair has been finalised, the rest of the cast is still to be decided. However, shooting for the film, produced by SVF, will start mid-August at Kolkata and Darjeeling. Jeet Gannguli will compose the music of the film while Ravi Walia will be the DOP.

If all goes according to plan, the first teaser of ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’ will be launched on August 15 celebrating the Independence Day. The rom-com is slated for a release during this Durga Puja. Apart from a pan India release, it will hit the theatres in six other countries in six different languages. ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’ sees Kaushani as the daughter of a multi-millionaire opposite a ‘ghawr jamai’ Dev. Puja Banerjee will return to Bengali cinema after a long time with this film. She plays the other leading lady but we have to wait for the film to release to know her equation with Dev.

As many as seven films will hit the theatres during the Durga Puja this year. SVF will release three back to back movies – Srijit Mukherji's ‘Ek Je Chilo Raja’ starring Jisshu Sengupta, Ankush starrer ‘Villain’ and ‘Byomkesh Gowtro’ which has Abir Chatterjee in the titular role. Apart from these three films, Abir has another film in the pipeline, Anindya Chatterjee's ‘Manojder Advut Bari’ slated for a release during Puja. To double the excitement, Kaushik Ganguly's next ‘Kishore Kumar Junior’ featuring none other than Prosenjit Chatterjee and Dev's comedy venture ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’ is also locked for Durga Puja release this year.

Srijit has returned to Kolkata after his short trip to The US and Canada. The renowned filmmaker, who attended a film festival and award ceremony and later organised the screening of ‘Uma’ in St. George, Canada, has now started working on the pre-production of his upcoming ‘Shah Jahan Regency’. It’s a modern take on Shankar's famous novel ‘Chowringhee’. It will go on the floors on July 17. The social drama has an ensemble cast including Abir Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Rituparna Sengupta, Anjan Dutta, Anirban and others.

India's most loved singer Arijit Singh is all ready to debut as a filmmaker. The renowned singer recently completed the shoot of his first film. He was staying in his hometown Murshidabad for most of the time in June as his first film ‘Lalu’ was being shot there. According to industry sources, he had some issues with the technicians initially. However, it's all been sorted out in time. Arijit is also making his debut as music director with Indraadip Dasgupta’s next ‘Kedara’.

Joy Mukherjee and Sayantika Banerjee were once Tollywood's most talked about lovebirds. But, a recent brawl in which Joy assaulted Sayantika in public has come as a big surprise. Joy stopped Sayantika's car forcefully in South Kolkata and started harassing her. Joy reportedly manhandled Sayantika's brother who was present in the car. Later, Sayantika's father filed a complaint in Tollygunge Police Station and Joy got arrested but he was later released on bail.

Starring Soham Chakraborty and Srabanti Chatterjee in the lead, Abhimanyu Mukherjee’s next ‘Piya Re’ will release on July 27. It’s touted to be a realistic romantic film revolving around a middle-class man and a girl from a backward family. The melodramatic trailer and Jeet Gannguli’s music has already won many a heart earning appreciation from the film fraternity also. This romantic drama marks the return of the fan favourite jodi of Srabanti and Soham on the big screen. The pair was last seen in Birsa Dasgupta's superhit movie ‘Sudhu Tomari Jonyo’.