Two days after the premiere of Sandip Ray’s Double Feluda, Shaheb ‘Topshe’ Bhattacherjee and Gaurav Chakrabarty, their besties Sonika Chauhan and Ridhima Ghosh, and some close friends got together at Shaheb’s house for a rooftop party. There was Biryani, Chaanp, a bonfire and a Christmas tree. The party, that went on till 3am, was the talking point the next day when Shaheb, Sonika, Gaurav and Ridhima met for a t2 chat at What’s Up! cafe on Southern Avenue...
So, how was the party last night?
Shaheb: My parties are really eventful.
Sonika: I go downstairs and there’s a sound in the kitchen. I go into the kitchen and see Shaheb has his leg in a bartan. He was like, ‘Na, touch hoye gelo!’
Is Gaurav always cool and quiet in the parties?
Shaheb: Gaurav is good fun to be with in the parties! In fact, he becomes this chivalrous gentleman from London.
Sonika: Gaurav is the sweetest boy of the lot. Shaheb and Vikram (Chatterjee) have this sweet face, but they are completely the opposite!
Shaheb: Gaurav is Topshe in real life.
Sonika: We have a WhatsApp group called Weirdos. We all meet up once a week, be weird and compare who is the weirdest. But there is such great competition that we still haven’t got a winner!
How is Shaheb at these parties?
Sonika: He is the wildest… he’ll make sure that people crawl back home! And Ridhima is the craziest.
Shaheb: Ridhima is the only girl who’ll dance all night! She’ll cry if she can’t dance.
Does Gaurav dance?
Ridhima: I have taught him now.
Shaheb: I have never seen Gaurav dancing, but recently I have seen him shaking a leg.
Gaurav: Earlier I never partied!
Ridhima: He is picking up. And anytime you play Jumma chumma de de, he’ll dance.
Gaurav: I don’t know how to dance, so I copy the steps of everyone around me.
So if Shaheb is the Wildest, Gaurav the Good Boy, Ridhima the Craziest, what is Sonika?
Shaheb: Sonika is the Mother Goose! ‘Chalo, khana kha lo!’ ‘Don’t make too much noise.’
Ridhima: She is very caring.
Sonika, when did you watch your first Feluda film?
Sonika: When I first met Shaheb, he gave me the DVDs of Gorosthaney Sabdhan and Royal Bengal Rahasya… he was like, ‘I am Topshe you know.’ I really liked the films, they were very engaging. Those were the first two Bengali films I watched. I fell in love with Jatayu when I watched Sonar Kella, and that’s my fave character.
Shaheb: Should I go bald then, and get a moustache?! (Everyone goes LOL)
Shaheb, how did you deal with the five-year gap between the two Feluda films featuring Sabyasachi Chakrabarty?
Shaheb: We took off from where we left. From Day One, the chemistry was already there. Small things, like a look exchange... I know when Benuda is going to look at me, and I reciprocated. Before shooting Gorosthaney..., I used to call him Benukaku. A day before the shoot I had asked him, ‘Would you mind if I call you Benuda?’ He was like, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Since I’m used to saying Benukaku, what if I blurt out Felukaku during the shot?!’ From then on I started calling him Benuda! And somewhere deep down, I am not too far from Topshe.
Sonika: According to my parents, he is very Topshe. So that’s like a split personality.
Couple test: How well do you know each other?
Shaheb, name Sonika’s fave lipstick brand, and her fave colour?
(Ridhima laughs out loud, Gaurav says, ‘All the best, bhai!’)
Shaheb: I know her fave lipstick brand is the Kylie Jenner brand, and I think the colour is dark maroon.
Sonika: He is right about the brand, but not the colour.
Shaheb: Coral?
Sonika: No, it’s not my fave colour. The shade is Posie K.
Ridhima, who is Gaurav’s fave film editor?
Ridhima: He really looks up to Arghyada (Arghya Kamal Mitra).
Gaurav: He is sort of my teacher also. Then there is Dulal Dutta and Walter Murch.
Sonika, name an actress whom Shaheb finds sexy?
Sonika: Katrina Kaif... we have had fights over this. I think Deepika Padukone is way sexier than Katrina.
Shaheb: I went weak in the knees after watching Katrina dance in Dhoom 3. But my all-time fave is Aishwarya Rai.
Gaurav, name a villain Ridhima likes or hates?
Gaurav: Give me a clue…
Sonika: Is this a Feluda story or what?!
Gaurav: She likes Darth Vader!
Ridhima: Love him!
What kind of gifts do you give each other, say on birthdays?
Shaheb: Sonika goes bonkers on my birthdays. She got me a pair of Louboutin shoes.
Gaurav: Ridhima got me a Bose bluetooth speaker. It’s absolutely brilliant.
Sonika: I wasn’t in town on my previous birthday. And everyone close to me knows that I do not switch on the TV in my room. It is just there like a white elephant. Something went wrong with my TV and it stopped working. So my birthday was coming up and Shaheb was all excited. He called me up saying, ‘Reach home and call me.’ He was shooting in Bolpur then. And when I reach home, I see a new TV in my room that he has bought, so that he can come into my room and watch TV. And that became my birthday gift! Imagine. That’s the most expensive thing he has given me — a TV, which is for himself. I can go without watching TV for days. While he has to watch TV while eating and even while sleeping.
Ridhima: Gaurav always pampers me. Last month he gifted me a handmade card... it’s like a scrapbook with our pictures.
Sonika: So cute.
Sonika, how do you know when Shaheb is keeping a secret from you?
Sonika: If I have a doubt about something and I ask Shaheb, he smirks. I don’t know why he does that. If you are hiding something, be serious and say, ‘What are you talking about?!’ I know that expression, especially when it has to do with other girls!
Ridhima, when do you know that Gaurav is angry?
Ridhima: OMG! No one knows what he does when he gets angry!
Sonika: What does he do?!
Ridhima: Gaurav can break things. He will scream at the top of his lungs. He will bang the car door. He will punch the bed or cupboard or wall. He goes wild when he is angry!
Gaurav: You need an outlet, right?
Ridhima: But he also cools down quickly.
Shaheb: This is a side of Gaurav we never knew! Gaurav is basically like Jim Carrey from Me, Myself and Irene. Split personality.
Shaheb, what is the one thing that Sonika cannot live without?
Shaheb: Work.
Sonika: I can’t live without working.
Gaurav: Ridhima can’t live without Rufus (her Labrador). Rufus is everything for her. He likes staying with her all the time.
Sonika, does Shaheb have a secret hobby?
Sonika: He is addicted to his PlayStation 3.
Ridhima: Gaurav is addicted to his phone. And when it comes to a hobby, he loves playing the guitar and singing. He is also obsessed with Photoshop and designing.
What’s the one thing you like to do together?
Sonika: We love to shop. Together we do a good job of shopping, we help each other. We shop like crazy. Shaheb is the most patient shopper.
Gaurav: Watching TV shows together. We just finished watching Narcos.
Couple swap
Shaheb-Ridhima
A travel destination where you’d take Ridhima?
Shaheb: Bora Bora.
If you had to prepare a dish together, what would you do?
Shaheb: Ridhima is good at baking, so we’ll bake a cake together.
Which film would you take Ridhima out to for a date?
Shaheb: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, because it has Ridhima’s fave actor — Ranbir Kapoor.
Ridhima: But then you gain nothing out of the date!
Shaheb: But I want to see you happy.
Ridhima: So sweet.
Gaurav-Sonika
If you had to take Sonika out on a date, where would you go?
Gaurav: She is very sporty, so I’ll take her to some game, or racing, like a Formula One race.
Sonika: Perfect answer. I would love to go.
A song you would sing to woo Sonika?
Gaurav: Starboy by The Weeknd.
What’s that one special thing you will gift Sonika?
Gaurav: Shaheb. That’ll be the best gift!
Pictures: B. Halder