Shayan Munshi with Raima Sen, his co-star in The Bong Connection

Calcutta, Feb. 26: He might have had trouble with some of his Bengali lines in Anjan Dutt’s new film, but Shayan Munshi’s Bong Connection is right in place.

Grandson of eye specialist Nihar Munshi and a former student of Don Bosco (Park Circus) and Calcutta International School, the 27-year-old’s rise in the world of fashion has largely been overshadowed by the Jessica Lal murder case.

Now, as his acting career seems to be looking up, the acquittal of all nine accused in the 1999 case has put the limelight back on Shayan, the hostile witness.

Shayan was doubling as bartender at the April 29 Tamarind Court party at which 34-year-old model Jessica was shot dead.

Manu Sharma, the son of a serving Haryana minister, was alleged to have shot her after she, also playing bartender, refused to serve him after 2 am.

Then a struggling model and actor, Shayan had given the court a blow-by-blow account of what he had seen that night. But later, he turned hostile, denying that Manu was one of the two men who had opened fire.

Having got into modelling from the age of 11, Shayan had left Calcutta at 18 to make it big in the world of glamour. But soon after, he got embroiled in the case.

After the initial heat over the murder died down, Shayan began ruling the Indian ramp and appeared in print and TV commercials for Levis, Samsung and Kwality Walls.

He also appeared in music videos like Nitin Bali’s Deewana Hua Baadal. His film career took off with Sujoy Ghosh’s surprise hit Jhankaar Beats, in which he was paired opposite another Calcuttan, Riya Sen.

A closed contract with Pritish Nandy Communications had stifled his acting career but Shayan bounced back by signing big-banner films like Amar Joshi Shahid Ho Gaya with Suniel Shetty and Ahista Ahista with Soha Ali Khan and Abhay Deol.

He even did cameos in films like My Brother Nikhil and Home Delivery, directed by Bengalis Onir and Sujoy Ghosh.

His modelling career took a giant leap when he was signed up by one of UK’s leading modelling agency, Models 1, last year. Shayan then got to walk in the Fashion Weeks in Paris, Milan and London.

In December last year, he married veejay-turned-actress Peeya Rai Choudhary, a half-Bengali, in Mumbai.

Shayan’s signing of Dutt’s crossover project The Bong Connection was like a “return to roots” as he got to shoot in Calcutta and Santiniketan in January and February earlier this year. “I didn’t know Anjanda or his body of work but I could identify with my character of Andy who comes from the US to Calcutta looking for his roots,” Shayan had said during the movie launch.

“Everything in my life has been an accident,” Shayan had then told The Telegraph.