Abhijaan 2015 – Bengali Film Festival In Dubai | Anindyo Ghosh’s Bharaate

One more day for ‘Abhijaan 2015′, the 2nd Bengali Film Festival Dubai which is taking place from the 5th-7th February, 2015 at the Knowledge Village. It is an amazing feeling it is to see the tickets being sold out and seeing the event gather momentum and gaining popularity. From a small little idea brewing over some friendly get togethers, to a full fledged event with actors and directors flowing in for the event… I am a very proud Bengali at this moment. This year, Abhijaan 2015 also showcases 7 Bengali films with English subtitles – Chotushkone (Srijit’s Mukherji’s masterpiece thriller, starring stalwarts like Aparna Sen, Chiranjeet Chakraborty, Goutam Ghose, Kaushik Ganguly, Parambrata Chatterjee), Teenkahon (Bauddhayan Mukherji’s debut directorial venture starring Rituparna Sengupta, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Ashish Vidyarthi), Byomkesh Phire Elo (Directed by Anjan Dutt, starring Abir, Saswata, Usashi), Bharate (directed by Anindya Ghosh, starring Rituparna Sengupta, Arunima Ghosh), 89 (directed by Manoj Michigan starring Saswata Chatterjee, Raima Sen and Shataf Figar), Ebar Shobor (directorial venture of Arindam Sil, starring Swastika, Saswata, Abir) and Ek Fali Rod (directed by Atanu Ghosh… starring Dhritiman Chatterji, Ritwik, Aparajita). While more info and snippets of the movies can be found in Facebook, grab your tickets now from platinumlist.net/tickets & itp.net/tickets.

Can’t wait for Bharate to be screened at #Abhijaan2015! @ourdreamz Thanks for all the behind-the-scene-shots you shared w @IshitaUnblogged

— #Abhijaan2015 (@AbhijaanBFF) February 3, 2015

No food post? Well, a temporary break to talk about films – Bengali films. After all, films do provide food for… http://t.co/O1aHvPwmVP

— Ishita B Saha (@IshitaUnblogged) February 2, 2015

Talking to Anindya Ghosh on his film Bharate…

Fun facts/interesting facts from shooting your film: The film was shot in Nov-Dec 2013 and hence I do not remember all the fun moments or the facts that vividly. But there are two incidents I remember, which we used to have a laugh over even much later. During one of the song sequences, there were couple of montages showing Arunima and Rajdeep kissing. Arunima was quite comfortable but Rajdeep seemed to be in some sort of discomfort and was taking some time to become free. After 3 or 4 takes, I was telling him from a distance (where the monitor had been placed away from the zone of the shot and where I could not be seen by the actors) that he was becoming stiff during the shot and needs to loosen up. While I was explaining that, he was listening to me alright but was looking outside the window which appeared to me in the monitor as if he was not paying attention. And I blurted out suddenly “Rajdeep please focus on the woman in front of you instead of the ones in the balconies of other apartments in the neighbourhood”. This made the whole unit burst out laughing and poor Rajdeep was so embarrassed. Another funny incident I recall was my second assistant director used to always refer to all romantic montage sequences as “love making sequence”. And Arunima used to get quite shocked at this since she knew exactly how many intimate sequences were there and it was quite a surprise to hear about extra unknown sequences popping up. After a while she realized what my assistant meant. But the ultimate was while shooting some outdoor romantic shots in the Kolkata Maidan area where again this assistant referred to it as a “love making sequence” and Arunima blurted out “even here in a public area” and everyone started laughing!

Something about the actors starring in the film: The three main characters in my film are Tiasa Sinha (Rituparna Sengupta), Rimi Dutta (Arunima Ghosh) and Bikram (Rajdeep). I feel they gave their very best within the time and budget constraints we had. Rituparna and Arunima are extremely seasoned actors and the film will portray that facet of theirs to the fullest. This was the first time I was working with Rituparna and found it quite easy to communicate to her what I wanted. Arunima has been working with me in various television projects for the last 12 years and we understand each other. Rajdeep’s character was not an easy one to play since he was a victim of a situation that is no fault of his. And he delivered what was needed. He was meant to be like a ping-pong ball being hit around by Rituparna and Arunima and he did that to perfection.

Challenges or unexpected circumstances that you have come across: The main challenge of this film was the budget and hence the time frame within which it needed to be completed. The film was shot in 14 days. I was not completely happy with the North Kolkata house where the film was shot. A slightly bigger house would have given me a much better option to play around with as far as the shots were concerned. But that was the only house that fitted our budget. An unexpected circumstance was Rituparna getting late on the last day of the shoot since her daughter had suddenly taken ill. It was an outdoor day shoot and by the time we started, we had very little time to take all the shots before the sun went down. We managed somehow.

A synopsis of Bharate… Director Anindya Ghosh’s Bharaate is a simple story of a couple who take an unmarried woman as their tenant. The story could have been this simple and straight. But you will have to watch Bharaate to understand the layers that unfold and the thrills within this apparently simple storyline…. the depiction of the storyline on screen manages successfully to create suspense and promises to keep you glued till the end…. if the theatrical trailer is to go by. So grab your tickets now for #Abhijaan2015!

Unblogging it all… Ishita

Tickets for Abhijaan 2015 are available at platinumlist.net/tickets & itp.net/tickets. Listen to SUNO 102.4 from 30th January until the 7th February and watch Zee Network for more updates.