Weekend Roundup: Bengali celebs and movies which made the headlines

Be it the announcement of Kamaleswar Mukherjee’s next film, a film on Bangladesh liberation war, wild rumours of a biopic on Jim Corbett, Rituparna and Saswata playing a couple once again or ‘Rosogolla’ director Pavel’s potential Bollywood debut; as the week came to an end, there are so many exciting updates from the Bengali industry. In case you missed all these, we present to you Tollywood’s 10 of the most exciting news from this week. Scroll down and enjoy your daily dose of entertainment.

Young actress Darshana Banik has been paired opposite Jisshu Sengupta playing a dysfunctional couple in Kamaleshwar Mukherjee’s upcoming ‘Mukhomukhi’. The ensemble cast also includes a bunch of experienced actors like Paayel Sarkar, Rajatava Dutta, Gargee Roychowdhury, Anjan Dutt, Shaheb Bhattacharjee, Ushasie Chakraborty and Padmanabha Dasgupta among others. Debojyoti Mishra has composed the Music of ‘Mukhomukhi’ which will release on February 1.

Suman Maitra’s upcoming film titled ‘71 Broken lines’ (Ekattor) focuses on a serious subject of the Bangladesh liberation war. Ranging from separation to conflict of interests, it tries to shed light on a number of complex issues related to the war and its tragic consequences. The cast of ‘71 Broken lines’ includes a number of fresh faces like Sourav Roy, Lahari Chakraborty, Soumitra Ghosh, Koushik Goswami and Sushil Sikaria. The socio-political drama is eyeing a release on February 21 which also marks the International Mother Language Day.

Edward James Corbett or best known as Jim Corbett after whom the coveted Corbett National Park has been named, was a hunter turned conservationist who became a blessing for the then inhabitants of Nainital and emerged as a crusader for animal rights. Many of us have read the exciting stories of Corbett in our teenage days, especially those who love hunting stories. Now, one Bengali director dreams of making a biopic on the legendary figure. Riingo who has made critically acclaimed films like ‘Kranti’ and ‘Jodi Ekdin’ is keen to work on his dream project. In fact he is researching on this subject for quite some time.

His earlier two films ‘Bilu Rakkhosh’ and ‘Pupa’ delved deep into human psychology and both of them received critical acclaims. Now, Indrasis Acharya is all set for his next ‘The Parcel’. Touted to be a thriller, Saswata Chatterjee and Rituparna Sengupta will play the lead in this film. It will be extensively shot in Kolkata, Taki and Santiniketan from January 11. “The story starts with a parcel. You can call it a thriller. I haven’t done these kinds of films so far, didn’t have the plan as well. I had a story in mind. One day a housewife receives a parcel from an unknown person and it leads to a shocking turn of events. What happens next forms the crux of the mystery,” said Indrasis while speaking about the film.

For the next few days it’s fun-filled work for Dev, Rukmini Maitra and director Raja Chanda as they are now in Bangkok. It will be outdoor shoot for next couple of days with Raja Chanda trying to wrap up the shoot for his upcoming yet untitled romantic thriller as soon as possible. Some crucial sequences involving the lead pair Dev-Rukmini will be shot there and the team is set to return after Christmas. The first schedule of the film was in Kolkata. The yet untitled thriller also marks the Tollywood superstar’s much anticipated project with Surinder Films. Initially Koel Mallick was supposed to play the female lead in this Raja Chanda directorial but later Rukmini replaced the actress.

‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’ is getting the deserving appreciation from film lovers all around. First it was the official selection at the Dhaka International Film Festival, then the South Asian International Film Festival and now the prestigious Palm Springs International Film Festival 2019. Srijit Mukherji is surely on cloud nine as he himself announced the exciting news through his Twitter handle. Srijit wrote: “After Asian Competition Selection at Dhaka Internatl Film Festival and the Closing Film honours at South Asian Interntl Film Festival, Ek Je Chhilo Raja now makes it to the very prestigious Palm Springs Interntl Film Festival. Congrats to the team!”

‘Nagarkirtan’ gave him national award. His riveting performance as a transgender surprised everyone and his rise to fame in such a short time can only be described as a meteoric rise. But when Riddhi Sen says playing a transgender in Kushik Ganguly’s ‘Nagarkirtan’ has been a life-changing experience for him, it’s no doubt a humble gesture from the young actor. His flawless acting in ‘Helicopter Eela’ was much appreciated and he is getting a few other interesting offers. But did you know the Gen-Y actor is all geared up for his upcoming short film. “I will soon start directing my first short film based on author Nabarun Bhattacharya’s short story ‘Cold Fire’, said Riddhi.

The first schedule of Shiboprasad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy’s next ‘Bela Shuru’ in Bolpur has already been wrapped up. The next schedule will be in Bangladesh and the ‘Bela Shuru’ will be off to the neighbouring country end of January. We already know Anindya Chattopadhyay is composing the music for this upcoming family drama and now the singer-composer has roped in eminent singer Kabir Suman, who is often credited with the introduction of a new genre of Bengali music, for the title track of ‘Bela Shuru’. The song has already been recorded in a city studio.

Manoj Michigan is surely on cloud nine. His latest directorial ‘Tritiya Adhyay’ was welcomed by all at the Bongo Probas Milap 2018 in Dubai earlier this month even before its theatrical release on February 8 and now the dark love story received its first international festival laurel winning the Best Screenplay award at the Expressions Film Festival 2018 in Nagpur after it’s screening on December 17. The two lead characters in the film Kaushik (Abir Chatterjee) and Shreya (Paoli Dam) are childhood lovers who once lost contact with each other. After a long gap, Kaushik, a sports teacher, meets Shreya, a renowned botanist. The narrative highlights the background of their breakup, reunion and future.

While Pavel is all geared up for the release of ‘Rosogolla’ today, December 21 it seems the young talented filmmaker is eyeing something big. Speculation is rife he has already bagged a big budget Bollywood film. Only a few know after the release of his first film ‘Babar Naam Gandhiji’, he got the call from none other than Mahesh Bhatt who called the filmmaker a ‘wonder boy’. Pavel is already working as a scriptwriter in Mumbai and now he is set direct a Hindi film. So far, he is tight-lipped about the project just saying that it has a stellar cast.