(From left) Bidita, Sohini and Samadarshi shoot for Ichchhe. Picture by Aranya Sen

Shiboprosad Mukherjee (or Shibu to friends) didn’t want to play safe with his directorial debut. So there he is, grappling with Suchitra Bhattacharya’s story Ichchhe Dana revolving around a mother-son relationship.

Shibu has chosen newcomer Samadarshi to play the son in the film Ichchhe. Theatre actress Sohini Sengupta makes a screen comeback as his possessive mother eight years after her knockout act of a mentally-challenged girl in Aparna Sen’s Paromitar Ekdin.

“I don’t think Tollywood has ever made a film on the mother-son relationship though there have been films on mother-daughter relationships. When I read Suchitra Bhattacharya’s story, I liked it immediately and identified with the story. Though my parents are very liberal, I have come across over-possessive parents of my friends,” said Shibu, in between shots, with his eyes fixed on the monitor, at a south Calcutta residence.

Sohini too could identify with her role. “We’ve had a workshop before the shooting. Shibu himself is an actor and is very confident of the script; in fact he is teaching me the cheat scenes! I have a properly etched-out role. I play Mamata who is an overbearing mother to her teenaged son Samik. The two end up being at loggerheads.”

After Paromitar Ekdin, directors offered Sohini “bit roles” but she didn’t want to play “insignificant” characters.. “I agreed to do Ichchhe only because it’s very challenging and Shibu was adamant that he wouldn’t do the film if I didn’t play Mamata,” said Sohini, dressed in a crisp blue taant sari.

Samadarshi couldn’t have asked for a better launchpad. “Shibuda had offered me the role last year and though I was very keen on doing it I got into FTII Pune for a three-year acting course. Now, I am back in town on holidays and Shibuda offered me the role again,” said the 25-year-old who had played a bit part in ETV Bangla’s Kokhono Megh Kokhono Brishti.

It wasn’t all that pat for model-turned-actress Bidita who plays Samik’s girlfriend Jayanti in the film. “It isn’t a cakewalk. Jayanti is poles apart from me. She is a bubbly college-goer who talks non-stop, while I am the reticent type. I even had to change the way I walk. Shibuda told me that I should not catwalk in the film. Shibuda is guiding me in everything. I am just doing a copy-paste job!” said Bidita, who is watching Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji’s films as homework. Why? “Because I had to be as chirpy as they are on screen!”