Tollywood roundup: Bengali cinemas that made headlines last week

Be it the upcoming Sourav Ganguly biopic, the grand release of Srijit’s ‘Uma’ and the craze surrounding it, ‘Sonar Pahar’s release date or announcement of Raj Chakraborty’s new project ‘Adventures of Jojo’; it was a week full of rumours and exciting news from the Tollywood industry. Here is a look at Bengali cinemas’ ten of the most exciting news from last week.

Famous Films by world cinema legends will be screened at the second Navrasa Duende World Classic Movie Festival at the Siri Fort Auditorium in Delhi. For Bengalees, it will be a special event as Satyajit Ray’s ‘Jalsaghar’ (1958) will also be screened at the World Film Fest. The three-day festival (June 22-24) will have a rare ensemble of films by world’s famous directors. Apart from ‘Jalsaghar’, films which will be premiered are ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ (1971) by Norman Jewison, ‘Wild Strawberries’ (1957) by Ingmar Bergman, ‘Children of Paradise’ (1945) by Marcel Carne, ‘Ivan's Childhood’ (1962) by Andrei Tarkovsky, ‘Gone With the Wind’ (1939) by Victor Fleming, ‘Throne of Blood’ (1957) by Akira Kurosawa and ‘Bicycle Thieves’ (1948) by Vittorio De Sica.

Jisshu Sengupta had earlier expressed his desire to play Sourav Ganguly on screen if a biopic is ever made on the cricketer. Now, reports are rife that the Bengali actor has been ruled out of consideration and instead, a few popular Bollywood actors are now being considered to enact the former Indian cricket team captain on screen. Since the Sourav Ganguly biopic will be in Hindi, the makers are reportedly looking for an actor with a pan-India appeal. The names which are doing the rounds include Akshay Kumar, Ranbir Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Ranveer Singh and Rajkummar Rao. However, there is another speculation suggesting the makers may cast a newcomer in the title role.

After agreeing to recommendations suggested by CBFC, Humayun Kabir’s upcoming film ‘Aaleya’ is finally good to go. The makers were earlier advised by the censor board to make six modifications such as muting the word ‘Gujarat’, used twice, ‘Ahmedabad’, ‘Jai Shri Ram’, ‘Kafer’ and ‘Trishule gethe’. Tanushree Chakraborty will be seen as a female sub-inspector in this action flick. Apart from Tanushree, Saayoni Ghosh, Priyanka Sarkar, Ankita Chakraborty, Kharaj Mukherjee, Badshah Moitra, Kaushik Ganguly will be seen in pivotal roles.

In Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Uma’, Anjan Dutt will essay out the role of Brahmananda Chakraborty, a struggling filmmaker, who has been given a challenging task to recreate Durga Puja in June, long before its usual time in September-October. The actor-turned-director reportedly said the role he is playing in ‘Uma’ has an interesting resemblance to what he himself faced in his life. Much like the ‘Uma’ story, a lot of people reached to him and encouraged to return as a singer-songwriter and eventually become a filmmaker. Even at 64, he has the same energy like his early days to try something new.

Parambrata Chatterjee is all set for his fourth directorial ‘Shonar Pahar’. It marks the return of Tanuja Mukherjee to Bengali films after a long gap. The upcoming Bengali flick has already gained a huge popularity among the movie buffs. But, the latest development says the release date of ‘Sonar Pahar’ has been pushed back. It was initially scheduled to hit the theatres on June 8. However, there hasn’t been any announcement on the next possible release date.

The latest buzz in Tollywood is that Prosenjit Chatterjee will be seen as an antagonist in an upcoming film. Bankrolled by his home production, it’s titled as ‘Kolkata Company’ and revolves around the underworld of the 18th century Bengal. The role Prosenjit will be playing will have many similarities with a historical character, but it won’t be like the typical underworld movies. Now rumour has it the makers are planning to rope in a Bollywood actress to play the female lead. There is every possibility she will be cast opposite Prosenjit who will be seen in a never seen before avatar.

Aparna Sen is all set for a screen adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s 1916 novel ‘Ghare Baire’ and now rumour has it Kaushik Sen and Jisshu Sengupta has been roped in to play the male lead in this social drama which was announced back in January. Kaushik will reportedly essay out Nikhilesh’s character, while Jisshu will be seen as Sandip. According to reports, Tuhina Das has been cast as Bimala which was played by Swatilekha Sengupta in Ray’s classic.

Recently, the team of ‘Rhododendron’ was in Kalimpong for shooting where they got stuck on the road for six hours because of delay in payment. The entire team was initially told to check out in the early morning of May 29. But the team including Payel Sarkar, Mainak Banerjee and others had to wait for the production team to clear the bills. The actors got back to Kolkata the next day but few others had to endure transport problems.

Director Neil Roy is working on his next short film ‘Khwaishein - The Desires of the Lost’. Recently, the filmmaker made the official announcement in the presence of Subhashree Ganguly, Bonny Sengupta, and Koushani Mukherjee. The plot revolves around a budding actor Victor. Once famous in his college days, he now faces the substantial crisis following failures and depression repeatedly. The story sees how his near and dear ones seclude him.

Director Raj Chakraborty is all set to make a comeback with an adventure film. The renowned filmmaker, who recently got married to actress Subhasree Ganguly, recently announced his next venture under SVF. Titled as ‘Adventures of Jojo’, it will be children fantasy film which is eying for a Christmas release. However, before making the new film’s announcement, Raj's ‘Tong Ling’ and ‘Katmundu 2’ got shelved.