Doting Dad: Birsa with daughters Meghla, a Class VIII student of The Future Foundation School, and Ida. Picture: Rashbehari Das

If half a day is dedicated to films, the other half is for his daughters Ida, 3, and Meghla,14. In between chatting with Ida at his Golf Gardens residence, Birsa Dasgupta tells t2 about Obhishopto Nighty and how he learnt from his mistakes while making the February 14 release starring Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Paoli Dam, Indraneil Sengupta and Tanusree, among others.

Your last two films 033 and Jaani Dekha Hobey had interesting storylines but failed to make a mark. Have you rectified your mistakes in Obhishopto Nighty?

You mean the storytelling failed? Or was the making bad? Or the way it was promoted and placed in the market wasn’t proper?

Well, the industry buzz is that Birsa comes up with great ideas but his films don’t go anywhere….

I think that happened with Jaani Dekha Hobey, I do agree, but I don’t agree with you on 033. I think it needed that kind of a storytelling and it was made the way I wanted to make it. So from my end, I don’t think it went haywire. 033 released in the pre-Autograph era. I don’t think the audience was ready for it.

With Obhishopto Nighty either, I haven’t done anything new. The idea is great. The idea was Debaloy’s (Bhattacharya, writer). In my last films I had concentrated on the visuals. This time I decided to cut that out and focus on storytelling. And with so many characters and so many stories, I had to focus doubly on the acting bit. Debaloy has written fantastic lines but they don’t come across as fantastic unless the framing, acting and the moment are correct. That is what I focused on and I think this film will be different from my last two films. But yes, I think I have rectified a lot of mistakes. People said Jaani Dekha Hobey is a misguided missile! Birsa is finished. That was November 2011, when the film released. By February I was dead and buried. Then I spoke to Shree Venkatesh Films and they thought that if they could put me in the right zone (little Ida interrupts and urges Birsa to tell her a story)... I can deliver and I have already done two films with them.

Which is the other film?

It’s a remake of a Tamil film titled Pizza. Debaloy and I were very stubborn at that point about remakes. But when we saw the film we loved it. I made it with Mimi and Soham, tentatively titled Golpo Holeo Satti.

Is it true that Shrikant Mohta (of Shree Venkatesh Films) made you change and chop a lot of Obhishopto Nighty?

No. See, in between I also made Galpo Holeo Satti and that delayed the post-production of Obhishopto Nighty. Then in between, Chander Pahar and Mishawr Rawhoshyo released and I didn’t want my film to get sandwiched. For Venkatesh, too, this is an experiment. Then there was New Year and Shrikantda suggested why not release it on Valentine’s Day because Obhishopto Nighty is basically a love story. So no, there weren’t too many chops and changes. The only change is that there was a chapter called Jomaloy Jibonto Nighty, which was about what happens when the nightie goes to heaven. We didn’t shoot that.

The name Obhishopto Nighty smacks a little of sleaze...

Obhishopto Nighty is about the jokes we crack on ourselves. It brings out your inner self and the journey of the nightie is its search for true love. The magic or the curse of the nightie will not work on you if you are truly in love. So what does the nightie do? It actually exposes you. We felt the name is very catchy. The first thing that will come to people’s minds when they say Obhishopto Nighty is sex. But the film is not that. It’s full-on fun. A classy name or a classy poster wouldn’t have worked for such a film. The language of Obhishopto Nighty is very Nabarun (Bhattacharya), the street culture. We have challenged the nyakamo of Bengalis. It’s a fun film filled with comedy-drama-satire.

Who is your target audience?

We would assume that a cross-section of people will watch it. They will say ‘Dekhechhish? Issh...’ but I tell you that every man or woman is curious about sex. The curiosity will pull them to the theatres!

But there’s no sex in Obhishopto Nighty...

See, there is sex in the mind throughout the film. People won’t come out disappointed!

Have you shown Obhishopto Nighty to Srijit Mukherji and Raj Chakraborty, your best friends in the industry?

No. See, I have changed as a person and a filmmaker in these two years. I have calmed down a lot. I don’t bad-mouth other directors or send long SMSes to people, which I used to earlier. I have become less pessimistic now. The family has helped a lot, Bidipta (Chakraborty, wife) and the two kids…

Did you tell Ida and Meghla that you’ve made a film called Obhishopto Nighty?

Yes, they sing the songs from the film! Ida even dances to them. I am very open with them. Meghla and I watched the entire Sherlock series together. Ida is too small...