(From left) Anjan, Arindam, Rudranil, Parambrata, Neel Dutt, Saswata; Bidipta, Aparajita, Churni and Neel Mukherjee. Picture by Aranya Sen

Anjan Dutt’s different-kinds-of-Bongs team is back from the hills after a 24-day “picnic” (read shooting). The 49-member cast and crew spent the whole of December in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Gorumara shooting a vital part of Chalo Let’s Go, where Dutt returns to his favourite topic — the idiosyncratic Bengali.

The cast includes Saswata Chatterjee, Kaushik and Churni Ganguly, Parambrata, Koneenica Banerjee, Arindam Sil, Bidipta, Aparajita Ghosh Das, Rudranil, Neel Mukherjee, Ritwick, Dhruv Mukherjee, Barun Chanda and Chhaya.

The journey of the 14 characters of Chalo Let’s Go begins in Gorumara and ends in Darjeeling. Parambrata plays aspiring film-maker Sanjoy, who joins the team of Asim (Saswata), Shekhar (Ritwik) and Hari (Rudranil) and opens a travel agency. The rest join them on the trip to north Bengal.

“We shot in places like Gorumara, the tea gardens and Monsung, a one-and-a-half-hour drive from Kalimpong. I had visited each of these places and wrote the scripts on location. The idea of making the film is to travel together as Chalo Let’s Go is essentially a travelogue. The characters travel in a bus and each comes out a different person at the end.... We left on November 30 and started shooting from December 1. It was extremely cold and we had early morning shoots. In Darjeeling, we stayed in three hotels as getting accommodation in one place was a problem. I have an amazing team and all of them were very sporting,” said Dutt at the Gol Park Grub Club on Thursday evening where the Chalo Let’s Go team had a mini reunion over soup, momo and Fried Chilli Pork.

“It was one big picnic for us. We didn’t want to come back. Anjanda knows every nook and corner of Darjeeling and it was as if we were discovering a new Darjeeling,” chorused the team.

“Post-shooting, we had addas, antakshari and music. Anjanda would strum his guitar and we all would sing together,” said Parambrata. “We shot in Kurseong’s Sasac Ashram; it’s a very quiet place. I didn’t visit my school, Dowhill, as it was on winter vacation,” said Churni. “This was my best outdoor shoot ever. I had a blast with Koni (Koneenica) and Bidipta, though we looked like frozen chicken most of the time,” laughed Aparajita.

Chalo Let’s Go is slated for an April release.