He has been living out of a suitcase for the past several days, busy that he is with two feature films — Balighawr and Byomkesh Gotro — and a TV series — Bhoomi Kanya. “I have projects planned till 2019,” says actor-director Arindam Sil as t2 settles down for a chat in his Nothing Beyond Cinema office on Rajdanga Main Road.

2018 sees you travelling, shooting, producing films....

I want to see young talent coming in. I am the associate producer for Guptodhoner Sondhaney (starring Abir Chatterjee and Ishaa Saha) and I am presenting director Dhrubo Banerjee. He is a really promising director, and he is going to prove himself. I am on the lookout for other directors too. I am hearing scripts. I won’t be able to direct every film and there are ideas which I would like others to take forward. Say, two years from now, or even in next year I am looking at someone else directing a Shabor film. I might be producing Shabor with SVF… so then I’ll take care of the whole set-up. I have done three Shabor films. I cannot keep on doing Shabor and Byomkesh. I mean, what about the other films I want to do? As far as Byomkesh is concerned, I want to do Rakter Daag and Durgo Rohoshyo, but after that I might ask Dhrubo to do Byomkesh for me. 

But your Shabor and Byomkesh films have earned high praise and acclaim. Won’t it be too risky to have someone else direct them?

But then I would like to give something new to the audience. I am also thinking of a revenge film with 
Prosenjit... and that hasn’t happened in Bangla cinema. I’ll be shooting it in September-October. The concept is ready. 

Is it on the lines of Kill Bill?

Yes, but with a heart... with emotions. So I am introducing another genre. I am a person who doesn’t stay in his comfort zone. You have to think 10 years down the line. In order to sustain myself, it is important to have a plan in place. There would be new directors coming in who I will be mentoring. 

We keep on hearing there is a dearth of good scriptwriters....

Of course, and I am extremely perturbed. There is this vacuum… the handful of scriptwriters that are there are overburdened. Many directors write their own scripts, which is fine, but we need good writers, and there is hardly anyone who would come over and give me an idea. I don’t see young talented writers. 

What kind of steps do you feel need to be taken to correct this?

Anjanda (Dutt), Mainak (Bhaumik) and I were discussing something recently. Abir joined us. I was telling Anjanda in front of Mainak how I was going to treat Byomkesh Gotro. I don’t consider Mainak to be a threat; he has been a friend. We have always stood by each other. And Mainak came up with an incredible idea to introduce Saswata Chatterjee as Ajit in Byomkesh Gotro (Ritwick Chakraborty had played Ajit in Sil’s Har Har Byomkesh and Byomkesh Pawrbo). I loved the idea and we are going to do it. And this is great… there is a healthy exchange of ideas between directors. This interaction should happen more. Competition will be there between directors, but one should not be vindictive. That’s important. 

But aren’t you doing too many things? 

It’s making me more focused. Asche Abar Shabor was declared a hit in seven days. So I have to make the most of this situation. My colleagues are all younger to me, look at the competition I am facing. And I don’t want to lag behind. This situation brings out the best in me. 

Tell us about your next film, the Indo-Bangladesh production. 

Balighawr is an intense film about relationships, about the reunion of friends, broken relationships... those nuances of life we are missing out on. It is based on a story by Suchitra Bhattacharya called Dheu Ashe Dheu Jay. 

This is my ninth film. Abir plays a promoter who is a wannabe, he is fascinated with brands, and is a show-off. Parno plays his wife. Rahul and Bangladeshi actress Nawshaba play a couple from Bangladesh. They have a kid. Rahul plays a professor in Dhaka University. Shuvoo plays a character who had meningitis at age five… he has not married yet. Anirban and Bangladeshi actress Nusrat Imroze Tisha play another couple who went against all odds to get married and now their marriage is on the rocks. Except Parno’s character, all of them had studied together in Santiniketan. The whole group meets for the first time in 12 years in Cox’s Bazar.          

It reminds us of Satyajit Ray’s Kanchenjungha…

You are right. There is a lot of Aranyer Din Ratri and Kanchenjungha in this. In this film, we are holding up mirrors. We start shoot from March 21, in Santiniketan, Calcutta and Bangladesh.

ASCHE ABAR SHABOR UNDER THE SCANNER

Diti Saha plays one of the key roles in the film, but she wasn’t convincing.

Yes, but her look was important for me. Diti herself has understood her flaws and she is taking Bengali classes and she is assisting me in Balighawr. 

In the end we get to know that the killer is a hot-headed guy. He commits crimes when he is under the influence of alcohol. There is a crime of passion as well. Can a hot-headed person who cannot hold his liquor turn into a calculative serial killer, who follows a pattern in his killings and kills in cold blood?

Yeah, we can have a debate on this… yes, there is a point. 

See, with every film of mine, I feel the expectation of the audience is growing. Which is why I am not ready to compromise any further. For Balighawr I have gone into my 11th draft. In fact I’ll be shooting with my 12th draft. I am not going to compromise any more. In some of my previous films, I had to compromise because of budget, because of time constraints. 

This film also felt a bit rushed…

Yes, but I am not going to compromise again. 

At the end of the film, Shabor addresses the audience and talks about good parenting, which sounds preachy. 

I had written a separate scene after this where Shabor says, ‘My father was a teacher, so what can I do? This comes out at times.’ We could not shoot the scene. But I want to say that Shabor is not just a crime thriller, not just a whodunit. It is about addressing the society. Maybe we could have said it in a different way. But that scene worked, I feel.   

NEXT UP

• Balighawr, starring Abir Chatterjee, Parno Mittra, Arifin Shuvoo, Rahul, Anirban Bhattacharya; shoot starts in March
• Bhoomi Kanya; the Cambodia leg of the TV series will be shot in Angkor Wat in April-end.
• Byomkesh Gotro in June 
• A revenge film with Prosenjit in September-October

FOREVER YOUNG: Prosenjit took centre stage at Bengal Lounge to celebrate the success of Mayurakshi, directed by Atanu Ghosh. Soumitra Chatterjee and Prosenjit played father and son in the film that has completed 50 days. 
Pictures: Arnab Mondal 

Arindam Chatterjee
What do you like about the Shabor series? Tell t2@abp.in