JOIN USSince his debut film Khosla Ka Ghosla released in 2006, critics and fans have been keenly following Dibakar Banerjee’s oeuvre. His follow up feature, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! preceded the experimental Love, Sex Aur Dhokha. With Shanghai, he turned towards political commentary and his short contribution to Bombay Talkies was the most memorable in the omnibus. Not one to reinvent the wheel, for his next full-length Hindi language feature film, Byomkesh Bakshy (releasing April 3), Banerjee went back to one of his childhood icons, the Bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi.
An admirer of Satyajit Ray, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick and Quentin Tarantino, the ad-man, producer and director found the challenge of recreating Calcutta circa 1943, one of the most exciting prospects of reimagining author Saradindu Bandopaddyay’s world.
On period cinema
“When we look at a period film we are so overwhelmed by the fact that it is period that we start designing a lot of artificiality around it. For example, the language spoken by the characters is neither the language of that particular period nor the language of the audience. In India, when we think of period films we think of cardboard sets, gaudy costumes and people speaking in a way that is nuts. In a faithful version of Gladiator, you would have to speak in Latin but Russell Crowe is speaking in Hollywood English,” Banerjee explains.
Along with producers Yash Raj Films, Banerjee has acquired the Hindi remake rights to all the Byomkesh Bakshi stories. The film, releasing next month, headlining Sushant Singh Rajput as the sleuth, could well be the first in a series. “Of course, that depends on how the first one does. Also, I didn’t want the confusion of another remake happening. In Bengal, one can almost see that with too many Byomkesh Bakshi flicks one after another. We wanted to make sure that, at least in Hindi, we can do what we want with the books,” said Banerjee.
Music, says Banerjee, helps him centre his thoughts when he is preparing for a film. “I listen to a lot of a particular kind of music. That gives me the emotional undercurrent of the film or some scene. I am always reading new books but I don’t watch too many films.” And after a film is complete, how hard is it for him to detach? “I cannot detach immediately, so I practice detachment even before the release. By the time the film releases you are completely divorced from the creative process and obsessed with the financials because that is ultimately going to determine the kind of film you are going to make next. And if it does not do well, then that sense of rejection envelops you for a time.”
Meeting deadlines
And how does he know when a film is complete? “Deadline! That is the only thing that ensures a film is finished and taken out of your hands. As someone said, a film is never finished; it is abandoned. I have a reputation for working on the film till the last minute and by doing so I drive everyone mad,” said Banerjee who feels most creatively satisfied and relaxed at the end of a day when he has tackled and solved creative problems the whole day. And he feels most wound up and tense when “I have hit my head against procedural, financial or management issues.”
While it’s too early for the director himself to remark on where Byomkesh Bakshy figures in his repertoire, one thing is certain, that much like his previous works he won’t be attached to this one either. “I am indifferent to all my films. All they are is a catalogue of my mistakes,” he said.