89 did good business in the first week (from April 24) but the sales dropped from week two, right?

No, in fact first week collection was good despite the earthquakes. Second week the collection was better. The May Day holiday boosted the sale. Third week it dropped because lots of other films released. Bela Sheshe is doing really well because it’s a family drama and mine is a niche film. 89 has been pulled out of the plexes in its fourth week. There is a demand from the single screens, so we released in 10 more halls. We’ve recovered about 30 per cent of the over Rs 1 crore budget. The word-of-mouth has been great.

Tell us a negative and a positive feedback you’ve got for 89… 

The negative feedback is about the ending. People wanted the ending to be a lot more dramatic, more thrilling. But I didn’t want to do a typical ending. The positives have been amazing. People have said they never expected such a smart thriller in Bengali. People appreciated the screenplay a lot and the performances.
Saswata Chatterjee plays a villain two years after Kahaani in 89, but there’s so little of him in the film...
Yes, he comes at the end of the first half. See, at the script level I was very clear that this character Sabyasachi (Saswata) is a serial killer and is looking for his 89th victim. He is about to meet someone he is linked to through  her past life. And that had to be in the second half, when the mind games between Raima (Sen) and Saswata begin. But Saswata admitted that Bob Biswas was very easy to play while Sabyasachi was more complex and hence difficult. 

The scene when Raima goes to meet Saswata is very similar to The Silence of the Lambs…

Yes, The Silence of the Lambs has been a huge inspiration. I watched it way back when it released, but after that I have not seen it. In fact when I was writing the script of 89, I purposely did not see the film. But for this particular scene perhaps I had The Silence of the Lambs at the back of my mind, subconsciously.  

Raima looks beautiful with no make-up in 89…

Yes, almost no make-up. I was very clear that she couldn’t look glamorous. And she agreed to that and she anyway has beautiful eyes. She is a director’s actress and with little guidance she performed brilliantly.

And you made Raima a pot-bellied old man in her past life!

(Laughs) Yes, normally in films based on past life or reincarnation we see people are born with the same face in their next life. But what I read in Dr Brian Weiss’s book Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives — the book that inspired me actually to do 89 — is that normally in past life it’s not even the same gender, you can be an animal, so forget about being reborn with the same face. 

There’s hypnotism, past life, numbers game in 89. How superstitious are you?

See, I don’t know if I do believe in all these or not, but this book fascinated me a lot.    

What do you think you were in your past life?

I probably might have been a dog (laughs)!

If you got a chance to do the ending in 89 again, would you do it differently?

Wow, good question! I probably would have kept Sabyasachi alive instead of killing him, for a sequel!

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