Residents of Mallika Malancha are making plans to go watch a movie. The film would be a horror flick — Flat No. 609 — but watching the show, the group would jumping more in excitement than fright.

Flat No. 609, that releases today, was shot extensively in New Town’s Mallika Malancha around this time last year. The stars — Abir Chatterjee, Soumitra Chatterjee, Mamata Shankar and Tanusree Chakraborty — had all descended on the complex for the shoot and residents were, and still are, star struck.  

Neighbours as paparazzi

“Mere samne wali khidki mein…” Binita Palit, a resident of the complex, would write on their ladies’ club WhatsApp group and follow it with pictures of the stars. Binita’s kitchen overlooked the balcony where Abir & Co shot and all the women would stay glued to their phones for the latest pictures from Binita. 

“We were like the paparazzi,” laughs Anuradha Biswas. “Sunetra Pandey’s balcony overlooked the outdoor shoot site and our WhatsApp group would be abuzz asking her if the stars had arrived. And then it became like a network. Everyone started peeping from their windows giving live updates of whichever angle they could see. Someone would say the stars are in the park, another would say they’re shooting a romantic scene in the balcony…we were so excited!”

The shoot happened at Mallika Malancha, near the Owl More in New Town, possibly because the film’s director Arindam Bhattacharya owns a flat there. “I live in Delhi and my flat here is rented out but Mallika was the perfect location,” says Bhattacharya. “It has a brilliant backdrop of greenery and being my own complex, I could expect co-operation from residents.”

“We own this flat but don’t live here. We thought it would be exciting to rent in out for a film shoot,” says Upama Pal, whose flat no 803 in Tower 3 became the eponymous Flat No 609. In the bargain, her cousin and Abir fan Ankita Pal would come over and stand in their balcony getting soaked in the rain, so she could watch the shoot.
“My friend Piali Das, who lives in Greenfield Ambition (near City Centre 2) came over to see Abir too,” says Sumana Sinha Mahapatra. Sagarika Dasgupta, who has a flat in Mallika but lives in Salt Lake, came thrice to watch the shoot. 

Mallika’s security supervisor 

Debasis Mondal attests that the shoot drew crowds from outside too. “At least 10 guests of residents would come everyday to watch the shoot. Even I clicked photos. They have got many likes on Facebook,” he smiles. 

Star struck 

“Abir called me kakima,” smiles Subhra Chakraborty, whose flat 802 in Tower 3 was done up to be actor Kharaj Mukherjee’s house. “Mamata Shankar ate Narkel-er Bora and Potol Posto in my house too.” But the elderly Chakraborty was happiest at meeting Soumitra. “I had gone to watch his film Prothom Kodom Phool while in college,” she reminisced. 

Bhattacharya, the director, says the residents were wonderful hosts. “They had a single request — that we arrange for them to meet the stars,” he says. 

“At these get-togethers, we posed with the stars to our hearts’ content and told our husbands to go on clicking sprees. We didn’t want to risk any pictures with our eyes shut or anything,” says Sunetra. 

“I’m not that tall and Abir is very, so we weren’t fitting in my selfie,” says Richa Jha, who isn’t Bengali but is familiar with Abir after the Hindi film Kahaani. “So Abir asked a crew member to click our picture. And then the entire complex photobombed us,” she laughs. 

Anuradha is humbled by Mamata Shankar. “She asked me to call her Mamodi,” smiles Anuradha, whose house became Shankar’s flat in the film. “She was so down to earth. I had packed a sandwich for her one day which she ate while heading home. She messaged me back saying ‘Oshadharan hoyechhe!’ It was such a simple sandwich that I bet my son wouldn’t even have eaten it but I was touched that someone of her stature cared to acknowledge it,” Anuradha smiles. 

Resident actors 

Residents are also hoping to spot themselves in the film. Whenever the director needed extras, residents duly offered their services.

“In one jogging scene, Arindamda asked Sunetra, Binita, Sonali Acharya and me to hang around the park. In excitement, Sonali went and bought a new T-shirt for the scene and the rest of us were debating whether to apply lipstick or lip gloss! God knows if they’ve even retained the scene or chopped us off,” Anuradha laughs. 

Some kids like Vanisha Tripathy and Rishika Jha played bit roles too. “One afternoon we were returning from school when the crew asked us to shoot. We were to talk amongst ourselves in the lift,” says Rishika, of DPS New Town, who then told her whole class to watch the film as she would be in it. 

“Two more kids — Sagnik Ghosh and my son Satadru Sinha — were asked to run in the park,” says Sumana Sinha Mahapatra. “Satadru had just recovered from fever but still ran with all his might. After the shoot he was wondering if he would get paid for it,” laughs the mother.

The 10-odd days over which the shoot took place in Mallika had brought the complex alive. “In fact, after all the fun and laughter we witnessed, I don’t know how the end product would be a horror film,” said Subhra Chakraborty. Over this weekend, the residents would find out.