E-Paper
Director Anjan Dutta to remake Satyajit Ray’s Chiriyakhana
Director Anjan Dutta will soon be making a film on Chiriyakhana by Saradindu Bandyopadhyay. Back in 1967, Satyajit Ray made a film on the same story but Anjan insists his work will not be influenced by Ray’s Chiriyakhana.
National award-winning director Anjan Dutta is all set to remake Satyajit Ray’s multiple-award winning crime drama Chiriyakhana. The original starred the legendary Bengali actor Uttam Kumar. Based on Saradindu Bandyopadhyay’s story featuring Byomkesh Bakshi, Ray’s Chiriyakhana, released in 1967, had fetched the legendary filmmaker the best director award in the National Awards presentation.
Dutta said his film would have more literary overtones and less of influence of Ray’s film, especially in the delineation of the character of Byomkesh.
“My film will not be influenced by Chiriyakhana of Ray and Byomkesh will not be influenced by Uttam Kumar’s style and mannerism,” said Dutta.
He said that his film would be guided purely by the original novel. Jisshu Sengupta will play the role of Byomkesh, the director said.
Dibakar’s Byomkesh is punk and edgy, mine is more noir, says Anjan Dutt
Asked further about the influence of Ray’s classic, Dutta said, “If someone wishes to make Nastoneer, Tagore’s famous short story which was made into Charulata by Satyajit Ray, there was no reason to infer that he needed to draw reference from Charulata,” Dutta said.
The director, who has plans to direct Albert Camu’s The Outsider, says he has the script ready.
Dutta said, “While Satyajit Ray had been banking on stories by famous novelists like Bibhutibhusan Bandyopadhya, Sunil Gangopadhyay and Saradindu Bandopadhyay for his films, and Mrinal Sen on Subodh Ghosh and Premendra Mitra, our generation of film makers started writing our own stories. But again we are turning back to literary works by our masters.”
