Bauddhayan Mukherji happy to start working on ‘Marichjhapi’

Director Bauddhayan Mukherji is keeping himself busy working on the controversial Marichjhapi incident that shook the Bengal in the 70s. His next film will be based on this dark chapter of Bengal’s political history.
When asked why he chose this particular subject for his next film Bauddhayan said, “It was long overdue. I have been to wanting to make a film on Marichjhapi for years now.It was the need to awaken the sleeping ghost of Marichjhapi, to bring the incident to light and make the world aware of such atrocities.”
However, developing the script for such a controversial subject isn’t a cake walk. After all, it will shed light on the forcible eviction of nearly 1,000 refugees who occupied legally protected reserve forest land on Marichjhapi island in Sundarban by the then government in 1979, and the death of thousands by police gunfire, starvation, and disease.
Speaking about the challenges, the ‘Teen Kahan’ director said, “Marichjhapi lives as oral history documents in our lives. People have written books based on survivors’ anecdotes, made documentaries, done PhDs. But their approaches vary a lot from a filmmaker’s approach. I need to know Marichjhapi at a macro and micro level. Knowing micro details of Marichjhapi as a settlement and incorporating them as part of a screenplay has been the toughest because there is nothing we can fall back on. Hence we have met survivors and asked specific questions.”
This film might also lead to controversies and Bauddhayan proptly says “I wish it becomes controversial. That way, it will reach more people and they will be aware of this forgotten massacre called Marichjhapi,” he added.