A new chapter

Dia Mirza: “I have waited for so long and this is the ideal Bengali debut for me”

First-time director Pratim D. Gupta (yes, of t2) has managed a casting coup. He has signed on Dia Mirza and Priyanshu Chatterjee to play the lead pair in his upcoming love story Paanch Adhyay. The other important character of the film is yet to be finalised, for which auditions are on. Shantanu Moitra will score the music. On Thursday evening, the project was flagged off by Kaustuv Roy at The Park.

“I am very excited about my first Bengali film,” Dia almost squealed when t2 got in touch with her. “My mother is a Bengali and when she heard I am doing this, she said: ‘Please get your diction right... I don’t want you to sound like a Mumbaiite or Hyderabadi speaking Bangla’.... The pressure’s building, yes!”

Paanch Adhyay will not only be Dia’s first Bengali film but also her first non-Bollywood film. “For years people have asked me why I don’t do regional cinema. I have grown up in Hyderabad... I have been getting Telugu film offers from the age of 16. I didn’t take them up because perhaps at some level I have always been terrified of the language. I just think in English and I know how difficult I find to translate it into Hindi.”

On this count, she recounts a piece of advice from AB (Sr) to AB (Jr). “I remember Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan telling Abhishek: ‘Son if you want to be a good actor in any language, you have to think in that language’. And that is a task. I think I am better equipped now to dedicate myself to the discipline that Paanch Adhyay will require. I have waited for this for so long and this is the ideal Bengali debut for me,” she said.

Writer-director Pratim is aiming to make a “pure love story”. “While we see a romantic angle in every film, we have stopped making pure love stories. Paanch Adhyay is an intense and mature tale of passion and pain,” he said.

Priyanshu, who has already wowed the Tolly audience with Moner Manush and Iti Mrinalini, believes that his first lead role in a Bengali film will touch people’s heart. “I am so excited to be a part of this film... this one’s straight from the heart and will touch every heart,” he said.

Presented by Shibaji Panja, Paanch Adhyay will be jointly produced by Kaustuv Roy and Nitesh Sharma.

The film goes on the floors in December.

Kushali Nag