Youngsters check out the South Park Street Cemetery, where Gorosthanay Sabdhaan was shot, on Tuesday afternoon. (Sanat Kr Sinha)

Sabyasachi ‘Feluda’ Chakraborty, Shaheb ‘Topshe’ Bhattacharya and Bibhu ‘Jatayu’ Bhattacharya at the South Park Street Cemetery in Gorosthanay Sabdhaan

The curious young Calcuttan has a somewhat curious ‘it’ destination this week: the South Park Street Cemetery.

The vast imperial burial ground tucked away in a corner of bustling Park Street, with tombs, monuments and mausoleums, is drawing college kids and young professionals ever since Sandip Ray’s latest Feluda film, Gorosthanay Sabdhaan, hit the theatres on Friday the 10th.

“We had a lot of enquiries at our gates after the posters of the film went up and the footfall over the past three days has really jumped from an average of 15 a day to 70-plus,” said Bijoy Kr. Singh, caretaker of the cemetery.

That includes the likes of Paritosh Saha, 30, and banking colleague Ronita. Passing by the cemetery gates on Tuesday afternoon, they paused and retraced their steps. They walked in through the gates for the first time, signed the register and strolled through the monuments and trees.

“We were in this area on work but walking by we suddenly realised that Gorosthanay Sabdhaan was based here. People probably fear visiting this because it’s a graveyard but it’s more like a museum,” said Paritosh. “I’ve never seen such beautiful monuments anywhere in the city,” added Ronita, training her cell camera on a gothic tomb.

“I’m overjoyed that people are going to the Park Street Cemetery. One of our main intentions was to draw attention to this place, which is an important historical landmark in our city,” Sandip Ray told Metro on Tuesday evening.

“We spent four to five days there during location scouting and felt sad to see that the place hardly had any visitors. There were only a few foreigners, so this (young Calcuttans visiting it) is great news!'

Some visitors come to discover the place before watching Gorosthanay Sabdhaan, some after watching it and wanting to know where exactly the shooting took place, while a few even look for the tomb of Thomas Godwin (a fictional character in the Feluda story).

“I was a bit confused at first and asked them to check the map till I realised they were referring to the film. They think Godwin really existed!” said caretaker Singh.

Sumit Soren, 27, was one one of them. He slipped into Feluda’s shoes to explore the cemetery and track down Thomas Godwin’s grave. “I sat down this morning with The Bengal Obituary to look for Thomas Godwin but on finding no mention of him I was compelled to come here.... I’m quite amazed how Satyajit Ray wrote an entire story out of nothing!” he wondered, before spending two solitary hours studying the “interesting emblems on each grave”.

A bunch of first-year students from Surendranath College stopped by to discover the standing tombs. “I read about this place in t2 and decided to check it out before watching the film. It’s really beautiful and serene and I’m surprised to find such a wide expanse of green in the middle of Park Street,” said Soura Chanda.

Arnab Das, 23, and Sayak Nandi, 28 managed to slip in just before the gates shut at 5pm. Rushing through the rows of mossy tombstones in various stages of decay, Sayak said: “After watching the film, we both wanted to visit this historical place.... Having lived in this city since birth, it would be shameful not to come and see the place we had mistaken to be just another cemetery.”

The South Park Street Cemetery, with its long and narrow pathways criss-crossing the 1,600 towering tombs with cenotaphs and epitaphs, was founded on August 25, 1767. Restored by the Christian Burial Board, it has the tombs of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, William Jones, founder of the Asiatic Society, John Hyde, a judge famous for his papers, and Rose Aylmer, who inspired the poem of the same name by Walter Savage Landor.

The cemetery is open to visitors from 8am to 5pm.

Have you been to South Park Street Cemetery? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com