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| Parambrata and Srijit at the Reliance Entertainment office in Gariahat. Chotuskone is set for a September 26 release. Picture: Rashbehari Das |
Srijit, wasn’t Chotuskone supposed to be your second film after Autograph?
Srijit: Yes, and there are quite a few reasons why it didn’t happen. Rituda (Rituparno Ghosh) was very gung-ho about it. But he ditched me and went away. The last time I spoke to him, seven days before his death, was about Chotuskone. This film is dedicated to him. Then on, the project started getting into troubled waters. I wrote Rituda’s role for Kaushikda (Ganguly) but he got busy with Khaad.
Parambrata: And then you fell ill, right?
Srijit: Yes, I fell ill and everything stopped, thanks to my bleeding pair of lungs! Eventually when I decided to do the film I was looking for a director-actor. And then my knight in shining armour was Param!
Parambrata: I was sort of blackmailed into the project!
Srijit: (Laughs) Mine was emotional, his was functional!
Parambrata: He had wanted me to do a guest appearance in Chotuskone. I had said no. Then he offered me another role which too was a guest appearance. I agreed. We met at a party where he insisted that we sit and discuss the role. I was wondering why he wanted to discuss for a two-day shoot. At that time I was prepping up for Lorai (Param’s third directorial venture). So I told him I am in the thick of things and then suddenly he asks, ‘What about your dates?’ I replied, ‘Dates maane? I am not doing anything’. He said, ‘Can you give me 14 days?’ I said, ‘Rijuda (Srijit) you need 14 days for a guest appearance?’ He said, ‘No, I am asking you to do one of the four kones, the angles!’ My reply: ‘Are you mad? I have just two months to go before Lorai hits floors. Who will tell Bumbada (Prosenjit, plays the lead in Lorai)?’ He said: ‘Bumbada actually told me to cast you!’ I was like ‘bullshit, this can’t be!’
Srijit: The Bumbada subplot is, in between, I had wanted to do Chotuskone with four actors. So I had approached Bumbada. But he suggested that actors playing directors won’t be fun. So he suggested Param’s name.
Parambrata: I was really angry. The next day I met Bumbada. He told me it was his idea! He said, ‘Tell Srijit to do the production design for Lorai’. I thought bah, this is a good idea! I told Rijuda, ‘Shono, I am doing your film but you have to do the production design for mine’. First he sounded very upbeat and then five minutes later he called me back and asked, ‘I suppose the shoot will happen at the peak of summer and in a lot of dust?’ I said yes, football so…. And then he said, ‘The doctor has asked me to avoid all that’. And I understood that he won’t do it. So I took his assistant director away!
Srijit: Shakuni Mama! (Laughs)
So, finally, who plays who in Chotuskone?
Srijit: Finally, we have Aparna Sen as Trina, Goutam Ghose as Shakyo, Chiranjit as Dipto and Parambrata as Joyabrata. All four of them play directors who are making a film. The other cast members are Paayel Sarkar, Indrasish, Koneenica Banerjee, Barun Chanda, Kaushik Ganguly, Debleena Dutt, Neel Mukhopadhyay and Biswajit Chakraborty.
When you work with so many directors in a film, what do they bring to the table?
Srijit: Very difficult dates! Also it’s interesting because sometimes the director personas would slip out. Say for instance Goutamda gives very good inputs on lights. Rinadi (Aparna) had many questions about dialogues, art and aesthetic, acting motivation. But they never tried to dominate me. At the end of the day I am a junior director, but they never interfered with my vision. Obviously there were disagreements but that’s why we are different directors.
But you act in other directors’ films, so why not cast yourself?
Parambrata: If I too had turned it down then maybe he would have thought of casting himself!
Srijit: Probably, but I believe in working with people who are better than me. I still fail to understand how people can act while directing their films.
Parambrata: It’s very difficult.
Srijit: For even a second a director is letting go of his control while acting. That’s a very scary thought. One of the main reasons of writing this script is to see these four different representatives of totally different planets coming together. Uranus, Neptune, Mercury and Jupiter are interacting and I want to see them all. Now if I barge in as Mars there’s no kick!
Param, don’t you think Srijit always gives you the best roles?
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| (From top) Aparna Sen, Chiranjit, Goutam Ghose and Parambrata |
Parambrata: If I name five of my most important films then two are Srijit’s films. I cannot deny that. The Bengali audience, kind of, rediscovered me through 22shey Srabon. It re-established me. Also the way Srijit writes a character, for performers, it’s very alluring. I might have differential opinion about his films but the way he writes is an actor’s delight. Actors want to perform.... Srijit strikes a balance between populism and sensible cinema.
Srijit, Chotuskone is your third film with Param. He is also a director and both of you are contemporaries, isn’t there ever jealousy or competition?
Srjit: Jealousy, not from my side at least.
Parambrata: Not jealousy but there are differences of opinion.
Srijit: I think it’s a very healthy thing. I might have reservations regarding certain films and Param might totally love those films. But there’s no competition or jealousy. See, I have never wanted to become an actor. It’s never like okay, Param played Haru (Hercules) so well and I couldn’t! Never!
And Param, as a fellow director?
Parambrata: See, I have made only three films, the first was a big flop (Jiyo Kaka!!), the second (Hawa Bodol) was fair amount of hit but in terms of recognition as a director I still don’t belong to that bracket.
Srijit: With Param I share an incredible comfort zone. I have directed him on stage, in films.... We go back a long way. We know each other’s strength and weaknesses. When we collaborate I have to give least effort to extract excellence from him. Irrespective of what goes on in our personal lives the bond is very strong.
Parambrata: Though he is more friendly to Jisshu (Sengupta) nowadays! (Laughs)
Srijit: Yes, Jisshu is a good friend. And since Param spends a lot of time with Birsa (Dasgupta) these days so I have to have my addas with someone else!
Parambrata: A few days back we had a huge fight on WhatsApp and that went on for about two hours! But that ended over drinks in Blue and Beyond!
Srijit: Have you watched Saudagar? There was this reconciliation scene between Dilip Kumar and Raj Kumar where they play Holi after years. We do the Imli ka boota exercise frequently! (Both go ROFL)
THE PLOT: Chotuskone is about four directors collaborating to make a film. They undertake a journey to meet the producer, and as the film progresses there’s a bigger story and they get embroiled in it.
