The biopic on legendary Bengali actor, poet and theatre artist Soumitra Chatterjee, ‘Abhijaan’, by Parambrata Chatterjee will make a European premiere on 26th June at Cine Lumiere as part of Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival (LIFF). Parambrata shared the journey of making ‘Abhijaan’. He shared his experience of directing the biopic on the legendary artist and how every moment of making this movie will be a memory on its own.
Parambrata said he had embraced a long-cherished dream of capturing the thespian’s life in the form of a biopic. He also added that Indian cinema would have been incomplete without mentioning Soumitra Chatterjee’s name. The film seeks to explore the multifaceted personality of Soumitra Chatterjee, which was a challenging task, but Parambrata mentioned that the entire team pulled it off well.
He was speaking at the Think Tank webinar titled ‘Celebrating Today’s Bengali Directors’ organised by the Bengal Heritage Foundation (BHF) on 13th June in partnership with LIFF and Baithak UK. Parambrata was joined by Suman Mukhopadhyay (director of ‘Nazar Band’) and Suman Ghosh (director of ‘Searching for Happiness’).
This year BHF partnered with LIFF (London Indian Film Festival) for their 12th edition of the Film Festival. The discussion was moderated by Suman Ghosh, Professor of Film Studies, Bath Spa University who picked up interesting questions for the conversations to flow. Each of the Directors took turns in unfolding a little, without giving the details out, about their upcoming movies. They shared their thoughts on what led to the birth of the background stories, how they created the concept and brought each of the pieces together.
Suman Ghosh, director of ‘Searching for Happiness’ emphasised how this tender tale can be related by many people who are looking for joy in a complex world.
Suman Mukhopadhyay, director of ‘Nazarband’, spoke from Mumbai about his upcoming movie and its compelling tale of a woman’s life after she was released from prison. He explained how he was inspired by stories by Ashapurna Devi and that led him to visualise architecture with two interesting characters in the crowded streets of Kolkata. ‘Nazarband’ screens on 23rd June at BFI Southbank, London.
Cary Rajinder Sawhney, MBE (Executive & Programming Director of Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival), who was also present in the webinar spoke about LIFF 2021 and the various movies the festival has to offer with Covid guidelines in place.
Sangeeta Datta from Baithak was also present in the webinar as partners to speak about her long association with the festival and urged the diaspora to come to see the movies. Sambrita Das of Bengal Heritage Foundation noted, “Our aim is to ensure more and more people in the Bengali diaspora in the UK have access to such quality movies and can go the cinemas to watch.”
