Showing my artefact collections on celluloid was a creative call that fit the bill: Subhrajit Mitra

Art inspires life but when it's the other way round, there is more often than not an interesting story behind such creation. Director Subhrajit Mitra, who has been riding high on the success of his debut film

Avijatrik

, has a revelation to make. "I pride myself as an ancient artefact collector since the past 20 years and have used many of the authentic replicas from my collection in the movie. When the audience saw Sabyasachi Chakraborty play

Sankar

, Apu's globe-trotter friend, they saw my collection that was shown as part of his adventure trip mementos," he shared.

Subhrajit has literally hoarded his entire house with as many artefacts as he could. "They are often collected from museums that I am a member of, during vacations and also from online auctions. This is one of my hobbies and I have a keen interest in continuing with it," he said. When asked how did he fit his years-long collections into a movie that's already steeped in

Bengal

's film history and yet is conceptualised in the recent years, the director said, "I have taken a few cinematic liberties while progressing with

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay

's story. While the character Leela, played by Arpita Chatterjee, was part of the novel, it wasn't there in

Ray

's Trilogy. I reintroduced the character. But Sankar is an entirely new entry. Although, the book has an European globe-trotter friend of Apu, I thought why not the adventurous Sankar himself in my film. And making him show my collections on celluloid was a creative call that just fit the bill."