Strike a pose: Jisshu and Ritwick in a photoshoot to promote Gole Maale... at the Sangeet Bangla studio on Rafi Ahmed kidwai road. Pictures by Rashbehari Das

Team Gole Maale Gole Maale Pirit Koro Na — Payel Sarkarand Jisshu Sengupta with Ritwick Chakraborty — is back! Directed by Anindo ‘Chaplin’ Banerjee, the film that began in end-2010 is finally gearing up for an early-2013 release.

Why the slo-mo? “After shooting the Calcutta portions in 2010, we went to Chalsa in north Bengal to shoot the rest of the film. But after a day, everyone — from actors to technicians — fell ill. Almost everyone had food poisoning and had to be hospitalised and shooting got stalled. Thereafter it was very difficult to get the dates of Jisshu, Payel, Ritwick, Kharaj Mukherjee, Kanchan Mallick... together. By the time I got the dates it was monsoon in north Bengal, so I had to wait even longer,” said Anindo.

Gole Maale... was supposed to be Anindo’s debut film, but since it took him two years to shoot, his next venture, Chaplin (starring Rudranil Ghosh), released first.

Jisshu, who plays village boy Gouranga in Gole Maale..., feels the film remains relevant because it’s a comedy. “It’s a very fresh film. We were all worried before we went for dubbing that it might look dated. But since it’s a comedy and certain scenes are hilarious, people will enjoy it. It’s a film for the young generation and they will love it.”

Gole Maale... revolves around Jisshu, Ritwick (Gobinda) and Payel (Bonya). “It’s a comedy of errors. Jisshu lives in the village and comes to the city every weekend. He visits a disco and calls himself Prem. Ritwick plays his friend. Payel is obsessed with the name Prem and falls in love with Jisshu. Gole Maale... is also about mistaken identity,” said Anindo.

What has the delay done to Payel? “It’s frustrating for everyone. All of us have changed physically and I am looking different in the songs because we shot them a few months ago. But the pace is fast and there’s nonsense comedy, so I don’t think that should bother the audience much,” she said.

Produced by Rajiv Mehra, Gole Maale... will be released by Shree Venkatesh Films.