Hostel ha-ha

Sanghamitra Chaudhuri just can’t have enough of remakes. Or, rather, adaptations! Even before winding up the shoot of Jibon Rang Berang (her take on Bollywood’s Baghban), Sanghamitra is busy planning her next film Kakatua, which will have “glimpses” of the hit comedy Basanta Bilap starring Soumitra Chatterjee and Aparna Sen.

Kakatua features Jisshu Sengupta opposite newcomer Aishwarya Basu. “Kakatua is different from Basanta Bilap but of course there are similarities. Actually Jisshu pointed out the similarities between Kakatua and Basanta Bilap when I narrated the script to him. Since the story revolves around a boys’ hostel and a girls’ hostel, many people may draw parallels. But even the Uttam-Suchitra-starrer Shaare Chuattor revolved around people living in a messbari. Does that mean my film is a remake of both?” argued Sanghamitra.

The bunch of actors filling up the boys’ hostel in Kakatua comprises Jisshu, Kanchan Mullick, Lama, Biswanath, Siddhartha, Joyjit and Premjit. Their pretty neighbours in the girls’ hostel are Aishwarya, Ridhima, Rupanjana, Mrinmoyee, Sanghamitra, Sujata and Sharmila.

Tanima Sen and Paran Bandopadhyay play husband and wife who run the two hostels. “There’s a lot of fighting among the girls and boys until they all fall in love,” Sanghamitra adds.