Pic by Rashbehari Das

He started off by making stark, hard- hitting films like Devaki and Kaal with themes like exploitation of women by a patriarchal society and women trafficking. His last release, Houseful, told the story of a failed director striving to strike gold at the box office. But director Bappaditya Bandopadhyay is now trying his hand at a different kind of cinema.

His next big projects, Kagojer Bou, releasing in December and another untitled film starring Paoli Dam, Rahul and Bratya Basu, for which he has already begun shooting, take a more light-hearted look at contemporary themes. In fact the untitled movie even has Paoli performing an item number. “Cinema in our country is only about entertainment and not a critique of the existing way of life. I feel my new films are more feel-good and should strike a chord with the audience,” says the 40-year-old director.

So Kagojer Bou, based on a novel by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and starring Paoli, Rahul and Joy Sengupta, tells the story of a rich guy who exploits an unemployed man to get rid of his wife and pursue the girl he desires. “The theme of money and lust is very relevant in our society, but it’s not a dark film,” he says. The untitled project on the other hand, is about the lives of four people in the film industry. Says Bandopadhyay: “The story has a film within the film. So I’ll use metaphors from commercial cinema like item numbers.”

Prosenjit Chatterjee played a failed director in Houseful

Says filmmaker Suman Mukhopadhyay about Bandopadhyay’s brand of film-making: “Bappa’s films always challenge the audience instead of making them comfortable. He experiments a lot with new cinematic idioms.”

Adds Paoli: “Bappada is a very cool director who’s involved in all aspects of filmmaking. He gives a lot of space to his actors and is also open to suggestions.”

Though today he’s a name to reckon with in Bengali cinema, Bandopadhyay, once a student at R.K.M. Narendrapur, never thought he’d have anything to do with movies. In college he wrote poems — an anthology, Pokader Atmiyoshojon published 1993 — and co-edited a magazine, Kobitar Katha. He even freelanced for a while for The Telegraph.

“I grew up on Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and Mukul Anand movies,” he reminisces. But that was till he watched a showing of Ritwik Ghatak’s Subarnarekha. “It changed my understanding of cinema,” he says.

He turned to filmmaking influenced by the late Gautam Chattopadhyay, a renowned filmmaker and the founder of the iconic Bengali band Mohiner Ghoraguli. “He lent me a camera for three days and forbade me to take it out of the room in case I broke it! I shot a short film called Heen Jug that was about a man who’s scared to go out of his room,” he laughs.

Soon after, he began assisting director Buddhadeb Dasgupta. “I’ve done it all — from serving tea to actors to scouting for shooting locations and helping with sound recording,” he says. After about three years, he switched to television and made two soaps for Doordarshan — Anandanagari and Jor Bijor.

Paoli Dam in a still from Bandyopadhyay’s upcoming release Kagojer Bou

His first film, Sampradan was released in 1998. “It got good reviews but I had no idea about distribution and couldn’t get a proper release for it. So it didn’t do well,” he says. Shilpantar followed in 2002, winning the Bengal Film Journalists’ Association awards for most promising director and best story and the Kalakar Award for best actress.

“Mrinal Sen told me that one was bound to make mistakes while making a film. And it’s important not to repeat them, but make new ones instead. He taught me that it’s never possible to make a flawless film. I’ve held on to that lesson as the mantra of my life,” says Bandopadhyay.

He moved to Mumbai in 2004 and made the Hindi film, Devaki, with Perizaad Zorabian and Suman Ranganathan. The film won the Best Film Award at the Asheville International Film Festival and was shown at several other film festivals including the Montreal International Film Festival, Sao Paolo International Film Festival and Festival Rio De Janeiro. But Bandopadhyay was back in Calcutta in 2005. “Bollywood was not open to making offbeat films at that time, and one had to be part of star camps to get producers. That didn’t suit me,” he says.

Back home, he made Kantataar. It made him a household name and won several awards. He followed it up with Kaal, which too travelled to a host of international film festivals.

Houseful released last year with Prosenjit Chatterjee in the lead. It is semi-autobiographical and is the story of a failed director who’s continually urged to copy South Indian blockbusters like other directors. “It’s a reality for independent filmmakers like us who’re trying to survive in the industry. But it’s great that a star like Bumbada (Prosenjit) is supporting offbeat films. He’s evolved remarkably as an actor and Houseful wouldn’t have been possible without him,” he says.

Bandopadhyay likes to watch films by Federico Fellini, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Fatih Akin, Kim Ki-duk and Ritwik Ghatak. And when he’s not living in the celluloid world, he enjoys cricket matches and reads poetry. But that’s till he zeroes in on the next story to weave on the big screen. u