The first day of a shoot can take one by surprise. And that includes the film team too. An actor can ask for an umbrella on a perfectly cloudless, hot evening (to shield himself from bird droppings) and a director can quip when the tension peaks in 
between takes. t2 dropped by the sets of Anjan Dutt’s Hemanta, a 
contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, on the first day of the shoot at Bharat Lakshmi Studio and came away with a smile...

t2’s takeaway from the Hemanta shoot on Day One

• The first was Parambrata Chattopadhyay’s battered look — he sat gloomily in front of a mirror in a make-up room, his head wrapped in bandage and a scar below his left eye. An injury on the sets?! Oh no, no, Param is in his character, assures the director. Parambrata plays Hemanta — Anjan’s Hamlet —  and the team is shooting the pre-climax on the first day of shoot. “The make-up actually helps (to get into the headspace). I can’t move my lips too much,” said Parambrata.
• The director can surprise his actors by doing the pre-climax on Day One itself. FYI, Parambrata let out one more secret. “Two things happen quite frequently at film shoots. The khaabar sequence is shot after lunch. And when it comes to difficult films, the shoot begins with the most difficult sequence. We have all experienced that. So, added tension for this.”
• Anjan is a more chilled-out director now. “Years ago when I had worked with him in The Bong Connection and Chalo Let’s Go, I used to be a bit scared of Anjanda. I find him a lot less neurotic now. For Chalo Let’s Go, he was driven by a lot of neurotic energy. He was erratic, he would get upset, scream… we liked him that way, adored him that way. We accepted him with all those idiosyncrasies. He has mellowed a lot, which is difficult for me to accept at times!  Now I’m becoming what he was seven years ago!”said Parambrata. 
• Everyone’s fave munch between takes is muri, which they have from a plate. “It’s simple, light and easy on the stomach,” said the film’s music director Neel Dutt.
• One just lost count of the number of times Anjan had tea during and between shots. And he has tea from a mug that has ‘Just for my friend’ written on it. 
• Hemanta is Parambrata and Jisshu’s second film together, the first being Mainak Bhaumik’s Amra in 2006. Why this long gap? “I don’t know! We have been friends for such a long time, but never made a film together,” said Parambrata. Saswata had the witty parting shot: “Ek mayaan mein do talware nahin rahe sakte.”
• Anjan can crack up team members and lighten up the mood between takes. A scene required one of the actors to hold on to a set of keys, and no one could find one. After a few minutes of searching in vain, Anjan said: “There are so many cars around. Why can’t we get one?” The keys materialised in a jiffy.  
• Payel isn’t afraid of Anjan’s dogs. “Lizzie is so decent,” she said.
• In Hemanta, the actors are not speaking the Shakespearean text, which is a departure from previous Hamlet films. “A role like this doesn’t come in an actor’s lifetime too many times. I have seen all the possible versions of Hamlet. The only problem for an actor here is to find a reference point because in all the Hamlets that have happened except for the Hindi Haider, the actors speak the Shakespearean text.  That’s a problem for an actor to prepare for Hamlet. There’s no colloquialized Hamlet reference. It’s a problem but it’s fun too. There’s a kick,” said Anjan’s Hemanta. 
• Parambrata grew a beard to get into character for Hemanta. “My hair is curly, nothing much can be done about it. I got time to grow my hair long.”
•  t2’s good deed of the day: We reminded Anjan that the next day (October 2) was a dry day. The director,  who’s fond of his tipple, wasted no time in calling up a contact to secure a bottle of wine. 
• Final word: Never utter the word ‘cut’ on set, not even casually. That is the director’s call.

 

Two is Company: Payel Sarkar, who plays Olipriya (Ophelia), and Saswata Chatterjee as Kalyan Sen (Claudius) went LOL. Saswata confessed that he was feeling “a little tense”, though he looked relaxed. “Etai mushkil. I’m looking to get the tone right from the first scene. My character Kalyan is really dark, and if I see him from his perspective I can’t call him a villain. But he might come across as negative to others. He does what he believes in. This is a really tough character to play,” said Saswata. “We see Ophelia as an innocent, vulnerable, delicate character. But here she is very straightforward. She is vocal,” said Payel. With Tollywood of 2009 as the backdrop of Hemanta, Payel went into rewind mode. “A lot of things changed in my life. I moved from Bombay to Calcutta. I did Cross Connection and Prem Amar... 2009 was very eventful in my life,” said Payel.

PARAM ON ANJAN

Why didn’t the two of you work for seven years?

It was necessary… I grew up with him. You need to take a break from the person you have grown up with to go back to that person more strongly. One may idolise one’s father, but there comes a time when you need to get away from him, to grow up on your own for a while and then realise the worth of growing up with your father and then come back with a stronger bonding. That’s I feel what has happened between Anjanda and myself. And there couldn’t have been a better film to stage our return. 

Were you influenced by Anjan the actor? 

Till 2004, there’s too much of influence of him on my acting, to the extent people would say Chhoto Anjan. Slowly and steadily, I disassociated myself from that influence. Anjanda is very big influence on how we think of cinema. With The Bong Connection, Bow Barracks Forever, Anjanda showed the way for the kind of cinema the Bengali industry is thriving on now. 

Anjan sees you as his younger self...

Yes, I was quite moved by that confession in t2. I agree too, with only maybe 10 per cent difference. I am more into, within, active in the industry now than he was as an actor before he became a singing sensation. We have political anguish, existential angst, we are always in search of something… both of us are opinionated, both are aware.