Prosenjit and Sayantani in Swapno; (below) Jisshu in the same film

Dreaming big is the mantra of Saregama Films in Tollywood, despite a disappointing start with Mantra in July. The RPG Group film production house is resolved to score with its second offering, Swapno.

The film releases in the Minar-Bijoli-Chhabighar chain of halls on December 16 and the stakes are really high this time. From the low budget, low star appeal of Rabiranjan Maitra?s horror film Mantra, Saregama has switched to a story for ?family viewing?, roped in a star cast led by Prosenjit, picked Haranath Chakraborty as director and pumped in a lot more money to make the film look glossy and slick.

?We have also gone beyond the usual storyline and tried to stretch the commercial format a little bit. So, Prosenjit is out of the romantic hero mould and has a different role here, an image that suits his age and appearance,? says Saregama Films, business head, Sunil Bhandari.

The cast ? which also includes Jisshu Sengupta, Sayantani Ghosh, Abhishek Chatterjee, Dipankar De and Meghna Haldar ? hit the floors ?only after three months of brainstorming on the script?.

Prosenjit plays a gullible, self-sacrificing elder brother in a large family. His relationship with Sayantani sours after a misunderstanding and the girl ends up marrying the ?villainous younger brother? Jisshu.

For the Swapno soundtrack, Saregama has ?recreated? some old Bengali songs which include the popular Hemanta Mukherjee number E akash sona sona and also Chanchal mon anmona hoy. Of the two new scores, one is an item number with the spotlight on Meghna.

?We have used some old numbers which are apt for some situations in the film. And we feel this will go down well with the audiences,? says Bhandari, with fingers crossed before the second acid test.

?Mantra was a learning step. We can?t be satisfied with the results. But we learnt how scripts are so critical. Mantra had a weak script and also lacked the punch in the end,? he adds.

Saregama had entered the Bengali film turf back in the Nineties with Basu Chatterjee?s Hothat Brishti, which starred Priyanka Trivedi and Firdaus. But the Indo-Bangladesh joint venture fared poorly in Bengal.

The RPG banner is one among several corporate houses ? other than Sahara One Motion Pictures and Planman Life ? that are showing interest in the Bengali film market.?But they need to be more consistent,? stresses Bhandari, hinting at Jhamu Sughand from Bollywood who has called it quits with three Bengali films awaiting release.