Parambrata: Arrested development

There’s a real-life twist in the reel-life tale of Parambrata Chatterjee’s directorial debut just before it was to hit the floors.

The young actor’s first film, which tells the tale of a wannabe director (Parambrata) trying to get hold of a financier, has hit a money hurdle on the eve of take-off.

T. Sarkar, the producer, has pushed back Jiyo Kaka!! citing financial reasons. Shooting for the Rs 50-lakh film also starring Rituparna Sengupta, Rudranil and Sagnik was scheduled to begin on March 14.

“We have mutually decided to reschedule the shooting for April or end-May. There are a few things that need to be worked out. One of the reasons is that this is the financial year-end and we are not too keen to start the film now. Besides, we’ve decided to shoot the film in Super 16, though we had earlier planned to shoot it on digital. So the budget may go up by a few lakhs. But there’s no reason why we shouldn’t do the film. Param (Parambrata) is a very sensible guy and we’ve big hopes from the film. We are just taking some time to sort out the details,” said Vinayak Sarkar of T Sarkar Productions.

The last-minute pushback has hit Parambrata, who was all geared up to shout ‘lights-camera-action’, where it hurts.

“We are through with the pre-production work and I am ready to shoot the film from mid-March. I have worked really hard. I am not just the director of the film, I am also its executive producer. I have finalised the dates of my actors, locations and sets. Now that the film has been postponed, I have to wait for the dates of Ritudi (Rituparna) and my cinematographer Soumik Halder,” rued Parambrata.

“But for quite some time I could sense that my producer was not completely prepared. Maybe the year-end thing is something they are more worried about. So until the circumstances are conducive for my producer, I don’t want to start my film,” he added, also clarifying that “shooting cannot start in April-May because of the monsoon”.

Jiyo Kaka!! is a comedy revolving around three starry-eyed youth who want to make it big in tinsel town. And then they meet a superstar (Rituparna).

What happens next? That, unfortunately, is a Rs 50 lakh question.