Kolkata underworld is under-explored and under-rated: Srijit Mukherji

He is not just a star but also a path definer. He has redefined the Bengali film industry. With his screen play and direction, he has made the audience visit multiplexes as well as single screens to watch Bengali movies. Autograph, Baishe Srabon, Jaatishwar, Rajkahini are some of his creations which have redefined the Bengali film industry time and again. Yes, we are talking about Srijit Mukherji.

In a quick tete-a-tete, team Tellychakkar caught up with the director to know more about his upcoming directorial venture Zulfiqar, his character in Churni Ganguly’s next Tarikh, his talk show Shonge Srijit Season 2 and more. Excerpts:

Congratulations for the development.  

What development?

That you are essaying an important role in Churni Ganguly’s next Tarikh...

Oh yes, thank you.  

Till date, we, the audience have seen you acting only in serious roles and in Ganguly’s movie too you are doing the same thing... are you confident of pulling off other characters as well? Do you feel that your acting part has remained unexplored?

Yeah, I agree that I haven’t acted much. I remain so busy with direction that I seldom get a chance to devote time for acting. I am exactly not like the character that I am playing in Churni di's venture. There are overlapping parts. Few elements of the character are like mine, but there are elements where there is no similarity between the character and me. So those are the parts where I will have to act. Also I do not aspire much to become an actor. In fact, I have said no to many projects in the last two years. I couldn’t say no to Churni di because I really loved the movie Nirbashito and thus I couldn’t stop my temptation to work with a director like Churni di. 

Your next Zulfiqar is also a dark film like Rajkahini...

Zulfiqar is not that dark as Rajkahini was. It’s a gangster film. We have seen a lot of such films happening in Bollywood, but as the underworld of Kolkata is under-explored and under-rated, not many movies have been made on the subject. For the first time a film on a proper Kolkata gangster is being made. This is set in and around the shipping mafias of Khidirpur and Metiabruz area. It is different in its basic philosophy. This is a purely action based movie. The movie can be categorized under the action genre. This is the first ever double adaptation of Shakespeare. Two Shakespeare plays are being adopted together: Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. This is a first of a kind movie which has never been done in any other film in any other language. 

How have you knitted these stories together?  

Few of the characters are common in both the plays such as Mark Antony, Octavius, Caesar and others. Apart from Cleopatra, these few characters are common to both the plays. And the play Antony and Cleopatra takes up the lives of the Roman Empire 20-25 years after the play Julius Caesar ends. I have omitted the time lapse and combined these two in between.

How much of your imagination have you used in the film?

I have not deviated from the main story. I have interpreted the story in a modern context. Interpretation tai holo adaptation er moja. I have adapted it with the setting of underworld and others. Obviously like Shakespeare, the characters, actions and emotions are larger than life. Shakespeare was a very mainstream playwright. He used to cater to both mass and class. The spectrum of the Shakespeare plays used to be broad and the characters used to portray larger than life roles. I have tried to retain the same in my film. 

Srijit Mukherjee is synonymous with intense and thought-provoking films. Do you think it is your comfort zone and would you like to break it by doing other genres like comedy, masala flicks etc? 

See I experiment with things to a huge extent. No two films of mine are similar in theme. Thematically I have explored huge range of emotions, contexts and realities but in essence I can’t become someone else and make a film. Whatever the theme I explore, it has to have my sensibility, my signature, my stamp, my thought process, my philosophy, my exposure to literature or whatever... so, that will always be there. As far as genres are concerned, I am open to doing comedies, sports and horror films but all of them will carry my signature.

Have you thought about doing such films in the near future?

I want to do a romcom...there are few scripts and stories...I haven’t finalized anything yet... let’s see.

So can we expect a different type of Srijit Mukherjee in the rom com?   

The story telling will have a flavour of Srijit, but the story will be absolutely different.

Let’s talk about your last television show. In Songe Srijit, we had seen you in a new avatar as a talk show host and with everyone you tried to clarify the issue. How difficult or easy was it for you to act as the mediator since you know them personally?

I think it was easy because at some point of time I have been close to all these people and there is a basic level of trust which I share with these guys. So, when they were talking about things personal to them or uncomfortable topics, they surrendered to the faith that I will never take advantage of that. So, even while I was probing I made sure they were not uncomfortable or they didn’t feel awkward.   

Name some celebrities you would like to chat with in Shonge Srijit Season 2. 

In the last season, we couldn’t get dates of many actors like Dev, Jeet, and Paoli. I would love to have Sourav (Ganguly) on the show. Also I would want Susmita (Sen), Shreya (Ghoshal), Babul Supriyo, Arijit Singh, Pritam (Chakraborty) and Jeet Ganguly on my show. 

When can we expect the show?

Mid of this year.