Ananya Chatterjee and Shaheb Chatterjee

Veteran director Basu Chatterjee is back in town to shoot his next film Kalidas Chemistry, which is a Bengali adaptation of Dillagi, the 1978 rom com he made with Dharmendra and Hema Malini. Shaheb Chatterjee and Ananya Chatterjee will replay the Dharmendra-Hema romance.

Based on Bimal Kar’s novel by the same name, Kalidas Chemistry centres around the love-hate relationship between a no-nonsense chemistry professor (Ananya) and a fun-loving Sanskrit professor (Shaheb).

“I was looking for two good actors to essay these roles. Though I haven’t seen any of Shaheb or Ananya’s films, people from Tollywood suggested their names. I expect them to do good work,” said Chatterjee. His last Bengali release Hochheta Ki? with Prosenjit, Paoli Dam and Arunima Ghosh did average business at the box office.

But Ananya is excited to have bagged the lead role in a Basu Chatterjee film. “Just having his name on my CV is enough. I can’t ask for more as an actress. I grew up watching his films. My favourite is Rajnigandha. It’s great that Basuda has cast Shaheb and me in his film. We are working together in an untitled film (directed by Manas Seth) and I am very comfortable with him,” said Ananya.

Produced by the director himself, Kalidas Chemistry hits the floors in July.