Director Ram Kamal Mukherjee pays tribute to Rituparno Ghosh

After making his debut as director in Esha Deol Takhtani starrer 'Cakewalk', the author turned filmmaker Ram Kamal Mukherjee has announced his second venture 'Season's Greetings' under the banner of Assorted Motion Pictures and S S 1 Entertainments. The film will be co-directed by Abhra Chakraborty. The story has been penned by Ranjib Mazumdar, while screenplay and dialogue will be written by Chandrodoy Pal. This short Hindi feature film will be produced by Aritra Das and Shailendra Kumar, and the film is based on a mother and daughter's relationship. Tollywood will be remembering iconic filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh on his fifth death anniversary. The first teaser poster of the film was launched to mark the death anniversary of the legendary filmmaker. Producer Aritra Das from Assorted Motion Pictures says, "It's an honour to give tribute to someone who single-handedly revived the dying film industry in Kolkata. He got the sensible audience back to the theaters. Rituda is a legend, and I know that people will have a lot of expectation from us, after Cakewalk. I think Ram Kamal and Abhra make a lovely team and we are really looking forward to starting the film at the earliest." Winner of 12 National Awards and many international honours, Ghosh was known for his simple yet socially relevant content, Ram Kamal's film will deal with something similar. "It's not a biopic," clarifies Ram Kamal Mukherjee. "I have interacted with Ritu da on several occasions, in Kolkata, and in Mumbai. Later we worked closely on his bilingual film Naukadubi, produced by Subhash Ghai. As a journalist, I shared a love and hate relationship with him, but whenever we met we connected immediately, purely on cinema. His sense of humour and eye for detailing would inspire me. I always wanted to tell a story on screen, and after Cakewalk, I decided to make a film that would reflect Rituda's sense and sensibility," he added. The film will be shot across various parts of Kolkata. Incidentally, when Ram Kamal started his career as a reporter in an entertainment magazine, his first article was on Rituparno Ghosh. "Yes," he recollects. "Years later during my tenure with Mumbai Mirror, I had interviewed him a couple of times, and that's when he would share his thoughts and ideas of making different kinds of cinema. He worked with the best and finest actors we have in Bengal and Bollywood. Most of his actors and technicians would interact with me and would tell me stories about his life. He went away too early," sighs Ram Kamal. Abhra worked with noted filmmaker Bappaditya Bandhopadhyaya and has recently finished his first Bengali film 'Jibito O Mrito', based on a short story by Rabindranath Tagore. "Ritu da is an enigma, he was no less than a star. He was so inspired by Satyajit Ray, that he would just follow his way of storytelling. When we decided to work on this project after Cakwalk, I was very excited and nervous at the same time, simply because people will have huge expectations the moment you call it a tribute," says Abhra Chakraborty. The film will be shot during the monsoon and will have two eminent faces from the film industry. "Talks are on with two leading ladies, I am waiting for their formal signing, thereafter I shall be able to reveal the names," says the director. The film will have music by Shailendra Sayanti, and will also include one of Rabindranath Tagore's famous track in the film. "Ram Kamal has been working on this subject since the past couple of months, he would often share references from Rituparno Ghosh movies, and that's when I realized that Rituda had a very sharp ear for music. Most of his films had music by Dibyojyoti Mishra, and I am totally in love with his composition," says music director Shailendra Sayanti. Ram Kamal worked with Ranjib Mazundar as colleagues, and they have been planning to collaborate on a project that would be close to their heart. "Ranjib is a brilliant storyteller, and he is full of ideas. Chanrodoy is yet another talented guy, who worked earlier with a comedy group in Mumbai and is now working on a couple of interesting projects in Kolkata. I think we need to bring in fresh perspective along with different content. This film will be a tribute to Rituda, not in terms of his body of work, but the soul of his entire repertoire," says Ram Kamal.