Ad filmmaker Amit Sen had no plans to make feature films until a certain script left him in splits early this year and made him change his mind.

This December, Sen is getting behind the camera to direct Natobar Not Out, a comedy starring Raima Sen (in picture ). The hunt is on for an actor to play the title role, Natobar.

“My friend Kamaleshwar Mukherjee has written the script and when he read it out to me I just couldn’t stop laughing. I was driven by the script to make the film, otherwise I am happy making ad films,” says Sen, an FTII graduate who has made several popular ad commercials, like Shalimar, Britannia and Berger Paints, in the past 15 years.

“Natobar Not Out revolves around a Bengali graduate boy who wants to be a poet. But his friends constantly make fun of his language skills. Then one day, something happens that completely changes Natobar as a person,” says Sen.

Raima plays Mishtu, Natobar’s love interest, though at one point in the story Natobar falls for another girl.

“I chose Raima because Mishtu is like a guiding force for Natobar. I needed an aura in the character which is there in Raima. Besides, she is a very talented actress.... Ananya Dutta, a model-turned-theatre actress associated with Bharat Dabholkar is playing the other girl, Ujjala,” says Sen, a faculty member at Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute.

The Natobar Not Out cast includes Kharaj Mukherjee, Ramaprasad Banik, Chandan Sen, Biswajit Chakraborty and Laboni Sarkar. “Ramaprasad Banik will conduct a workshop with the main cast at the end of this month. We start shooting on December 10 in various parts of Calcutta,” adds Sen. Debojyoti Mishra will compose five tracks for the film.

Sen had a tough time finding a producer for Natobar Not Out, “since it’s not a slapstick comedy”, until he met Bunch of Buddies. The six-member group has already produced Surajit Dhar’s musical Pa Ma Ga Re Sa, which hits the theatres in December.

“Our agenda is to back films that are commercial yet not run-of-the-mill. Natobar Not Out is a comedy that Bangla film viewers have not seen in a long time,” says Sanjay Jhunjhunwala, one of the bunch of buddies.

Kushali Nag