If Bombaiyer Bombete was about action and stunts, Gorosthanay Sabdhaan had Calcutta in a central role. Where does the charm of Royal Bengal Rahasya lie?

The charm is in the story, which is very unusual, serious and cerebral. In fact, it is one of my favourite stories, which is why I kept it for a later phase... when I would be a little more experienced with filmmaking. There’s no typical villain in the film, which makes the mystery even more intense. Those who had been complaining that Feluda’s use of his brain cells or ‘magojastro’ — a word Baba (Satyajit Ray) had coined — was going down, will be satisfied. Also, the locales are interesting and the characters are colourful.

Has this been your most challenging Feluda film?

Yes, it has been the most challenging one till date and I was a little apprehensive. This is a verbose film, so we’ve tried to make it as interesting as possible by taking it to various locations and using music to make it more playful, keeping young people in mind. There’s also the use of tigers and animals, which wouldn’t have been possible even a few years ago because of all the special effects and graphic work required. There were a few technical problems with the story where tigers and snakes are killed. We were worried because there are a lot of restrictions today. So Benu (Sabyasachi Chakrabarty) and I sat down with it as he’s involved with various wildlife organisations. He suggested that we approach the wildlife department. Then we came to the conclusion that we would have to follow certain guidelines or else the censor board wouldn’t pass the film. But we could sort that out without disturbing the suspense element of the story.

Is there extensive use of special effects in the film?

We were very careful with the depiction of animals. The story required a tiger and a snake. The snake was real but the tiger, although real, had to be merged with our background. Since we couldn’t shoot in the jungle at night, we had to use day-for-night process where we had to go in for CG and digital intermediate.

Where all did you shoot?

This is the only Feluda film for which we’ve shot in Calcutta for just a day. We’ve done substantial work at Dhenkanal in Odisha. The geography matched very well with the description in the book. Then we went to the forests of north Bengal with special permission from the authorities. We worked right in the elephant corridor in Sukna. We had security personnel with rifles by our side all the time.... One day we were warned that a herd of elephants had arrived at the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary for which we had to stop shooting, but we rarely spotted any wild animals. No real-life encounters though we had wished for one!

Who are the new cast members?

Apart from the Feluda trio, there’s Biplab Chatterjee playing a police inspector. Paranda (Bandopadhyay) is back for his third Feluda outing in a new avatar. A very interesting character who speaks gibberish but gives a lot of hints to Feluda. Basudeb Mukherjee plays the owner of the house and Bhaswar Chatterjee is his secretary.

It must be terrible to have lost Bibhu Bhattacharya (Jatayu)...

It was a huge shock. He passed away the very day he finished his work for the film. It was very uncanny. Now I’ll have to give Feluda a year’s gap and hunt for a new Jatayu, which is going to be tough.

With the loss of Bhattacharya and an ageing Sabyasachi, have you thought of a way forward?

There was a rumour doing the rounds after Bibhuda’s death that there would be no more Feluda films. That is not true. After Joi Baba Felunath, Feluda did happen with a new team. Life goes on and another new team will surely come together.

Benu is excellent in this film. We’ve been working together for 16 years and I can go on with him. To be honest, I don’t see an alternative for Feluda. Shaheb (Bhattacherjee) has turned out to be a good Topshe, but yes the age gap between the two is increasing. You can cover these up on the small screen but not on the big screen. All I can say now is khub akta nischintey nei amra… This film will tell.

What are you thinking of next?

I’m reading stories for a script. I would love to do a ghost story. It could be a compilation of three or four short stories combining horror, mystery, thriller and suspense. If it’s a compilation, I might use one of Baba’s stories but for a single story I might need to adapt someone else’s since Baba never wrote one large story. In the meanwhile, we’ll also have to be on a manhunt for Feluda.

Did having Shree Venkatesh Films on board as producers make a difference?

I don’t look into the marketing and distribution part too much, so it was a great relief. They are planning to release Royal Bengal Rahasya in all the major cities. We had tried it before but it was on a much smaller scale.

Mohua Das
Why will you watch Royal Bengal Rahasya? Tellt2@abp.in