Thinking alike: Goutam Ghose and Anjan Dutt

It takes two to tango. Charting a new course for Tollywood, Goutam Ghose and Anjan Dutt have come together to make a film, with Ghose as producer and Dutt as director.

The Kalbela maker has plans to back a string of movies by directors famous and fresh. The idea is to make low-budget films where the novelty will lie either in the form or in the content. Dutt’s Haate Roilo Pistol (tentatively titled) will be the first film to roll.

Goutam Ghose: All for novelty

“I wanted to offer a new experience to the audience. It could be an incredible idea or form, which I feel is missing from present day Bengali cinema. Producers want the directors to get stars and keep music in their films,” explains Ghose, whose inspiration, among other things, is Paris Vu Par, the bunch of six films made by French New Wave directors like Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Douchet, Pollet and Rouch.

“I thought we could do what French and German cinema of the Sixties did.... So, I want to produce some films, one after another. Rose Valley Productions is helping me with the financing. I am trying to find other resources as well. Anjan’s film will be the first. Anjan is a competent, well-known director and I loved his script. I have spoken to Mrinalda (Sen) to direct a film too. He’s thinking about it. I may ask Ritu (Rituparno Ghosh) and other directors,” says Ghose, who wants to welcome newcomers on board too.

“But first I want to see how this system works with a few tried and tested directors. We will have to find out who our audience is. We want to take these films to the NRIs as well. And I definitely want our financier to have substantial returns from the films,” adds the director who is simultaneously working on his next film Moner Manush (starring Prosenjit as Lalan Fakir).

As a producer, Ghose will pitch in with his ideas and creative inputs. “I am willing to give my advice but the director is free from all constraints. He will make what he likes,” he says.

Anjan Dutt: Finding his voice

“I am doing this film only because Goutam has asked me to. He told me to make a film that I wouldn’t be able to make otherwise, as we have to keep several factors in mind.... My films have been about fun, youth, humour and Bangalis, and after talking to Goutam, I felt I needed to look at what’s happening around me. So, I am making a political thriller,” says Dutt.

The project took off two months ago when Ghose sounded out the idea to Dutt. The director duo have since had brainstorming sessions on the script and the technical nitty-gritties. “Being a cinematographer, Goutam has taken an active part in helping me decide on the camera, the editing style and the locations,” he adds.

There are other pluses too. “You can take a lot of licence if you have a director as producer,” says Dutt, who feels the time is ripe for more such ventures. “These are budget films and the whole exercise would be to work with minimum resources to produce the maximum creative effect.... I also wanted to produce others’ films. I think Bangla cinema has come to a stage where filmmakers should come together to make each other’s films,” says Dutt.

The experiment: A political thriller

The two-hour-long Haate Roilo Pistol, to be shot with a hand-held camera, will capture the contemporary times. And Dutt isn’t shying away from what is on people’s minds — Nandigram, Singur and Lalgarh.

“There are direct references to these issues in the film. We are talking of change now, but I am not very hopeful of this change. I have faith in neither of the two political sides.... So my protagonist feels caught between the two. I am asserting the individual — that we can change our way of thinking.... There’s a personal story running along the political strand,” he explains.

Haate Roilo Pistol revolves around a crisis in the life of a theatre director when he loses his memory. Ritwick Bhattacharya plays the protagonist, Saswata Chatterjee is his friend, who’s also a theatre director. Aparajita Ghosh Das plays a theatre actress, and Chandreyee Ghosh is a brain surgeon. Chandan Sen plays a CID inspector in the film.

“Calcutta is a very important part of the film. I will use stock footage. I am trying to get hold of the TV footage of the artistes’ rally and the Nandigram michhil.... There will be a lot of action, like chase and gunfights. It’s also about how middle-class life is also threatened by violence. Stylistically too, Haate Roilo Pistol will be very different from my other films,” says Dutt, who hits the floor in mid-September.