Sreelekha and Swastika on the sets of Hello Kolkata. Picture by Aranya Sen

Raima, Pradeep, Sheela and Partha may have a good laugh when they meet, but they are all sad souls in debutant director Manoj Michigan’s Hello Kolkata.

On Sunday evening, Manoj and his team got busy shooting the wedding anniversary of Sreelekha Mitra (Sheela) and Sudip Mukherjee (Partha) at a house off the EM Bypass. Under bright lights, kebab and sharaab did the rounds on a lawn decked up with flowers.

Draped in a turquoise chiffon, Swastika (Raima) chirped: “My character is a housewife, with a daughter. She is suffering because of her abusive, alcoholic husband Pradeep (Amitabha).” True to his character, Amitabha settled down with a beer. “Swastika is a great co-star but we are at loggerheads in this film as I drink and abuse her. Besides, I am not happy with my BPO job,” said Amitabha.

Sreelekha, looking pretty in pink, offered: “My character Sheela is a very urban woman but she and her husband are unhappy because they don’t have kids.” And Sudip (Partha) had work woes on his mind. “My character works in an insurance company and all’s not well there either,” he explained.