Pen man: Santanu Basu before his play was staged on Sunday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

For six days of the week, he makes sure that the chief minister’s office (CMO) functions without a hitch. The seventh day he devotes to his “other” self — scripting plays.

Meet Santanu Basu, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s additional private secretary. Basu is a typical example of a professional who likes to work and play hard — and for whom theatre is as much a passion as it is about “managerial experience and bettering interpersonal relationships”.

The 37-year-old Basu is certainly not your typical CMO official. His passion for writing scripts and filming documentaries makes him easily stand out in the prosaic world of meetings and briefings.

A play written by him, Reality, which sheds light on some sad truths behind reality shows involving children, was staged at Sisir Mancha on Sunday evening, his first in the city. “Reality is a play I wrote in 2009. A small group called Ajker Dishari from Birati picked it up from a little magazine where it was published and been performing it in and around Birati. They tracked me down and we decided to stage it in the city,” said Basu.

Theatre veteran Manoj Mitra presided as the chief guest at Sunday’s show.

When asked about what his boss (Mamata) feels about his passion, Basu blushed. “She is so busy all day that I haven’t managed to tell her about my creative pursuits. The chief minister is a very distinguished guest. I’d like this play to be staged a few more times and attain a level of perfection before I can ask Madam to attend.”

With a keen interest in writing and films even as a student of geology at Jadavpur University, Basu even found time for a quick course on film studies at Chitrabani.

“I would hop over to the Tollygunge studios to watch shoots and my days were spent around the Academy of Fine Arts and Nandan,” admits Basu, who topped the WBCS exam in 1999.

“But even as I was doing my job I kept writing and developing scripts for plays and films without knowing if they’d ever be staged or filmed,” says Basu, for whom “writing is the most relaxing exercise”.

In 2005, when Basu was the BDO of Kangsha in Burdwan’s Panagarh, he directed a documentary on the Toto tribe The Next Door Neighbour, and later wrote a play, Shimulgorer Horek Kando, adapted from a children’s tale by Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay. It was his first play to be staged, his office staff fleshing out the characters.

After stints in Panagarh, Birbhum and Purulia, Basu has been serving as additional private secretary to the chief minister since May.

Basu, whose job is to brief the chief minister and her secretary about departmental files that come to the CMO and look after the chief minister’s relief fund for poor meritorious students, steps into Writers’ Buildings at 10am and steps out only at 9.30pm.

But Sundays are strictly reserved for reading, writing and catching up on the latest plays and films. “It’s really tough to take time out to direct a play because I cannot compromise on work. It is my first priority and I have to do justice to my post. That, however, doesn’t stop me from writing,” says Basu, who is currently rewriting Shimulgorer Horek Kando.