The past year has been a roller-coaster ride for the Bengali film industry. Battles raged, on and off the screen, and amidst the usual hook-ups and breakups, were a few shocking mishaps. Here’s a round-up...
Dev stirred up a hornet’s nest of sorts by starting his own production house. The reason? Well, the move didn’t go down well with the production bigwig that had a hand in making him what he is today. But the swords remained sheathed till the first trailer of Dev’s production, Cockpit,hit the airwaves. It featured
Prosenjit Chatterjee, who plays a cameo in the film. But as the actor was also the protagonist in the other production house’s big Puja release, Yeti Obhijaan, the trailer didn’t go down well with them. To make matters worse, Dev refused to shift Cockpit’s Puja release date. Soon, Dev was blacklisted by the production house, putting all projects featuring the star on hold. Even during Amazon Obhijaan’s grand poster release, the absence of the producers raised quite a few eyebrows. Now we hear, they have taken the Dev ban to the next level by barring the actor from performing to his songs from their films even at macha shows!
MARRIAGES AND BREAKUPS
The year saw several Tolly stars tying the knot. The industry’s sweethearts, Gaurav Chakrabarty and Ridhima Ghosh, exchanged vows in November, and Paoli did the same with beau Arjun Deb the next month. Then, there was Riya Sen who took us and her fans by surprise by tying the knot with long-time boyfriend Shivam Tewari in a hush-hush ceremony in Pune. of course, the year had its share of breakups and lovers’ tiffs.
We still don’t know if Mimi Chakraborty had sleeping pills or Subhasree tried to set herself on fire or for that matter, much about the alleged love triangle that spawned these rumours. But what we do know is that Mimi isn’t into sleeping pills, Subhasree is anything but suicidal, and yes, Raj Chakrabarty did break up with Mimi last year and went on to date Subhasree. But suicide attempts? That’s a bit far-fetched!
A NEW HEROINE ON THE BLOCK
Yes, we are talking about ‘Dev’s girlfriend’, who happens to be a lot more than that. For one, before hooking up with Dev, Rukmini was already a popular face in modelling, both at the regional and national levels. In fact, she has been turning down film offers for quite a while, as she considers herself too lazy and impatient to spend days shooting. Finally, it was Dev who managed to convince her to take the leap and star opposite him in Chaamp,then in Cockpitand now,in Kabir. The verdict of critics and industry pundits was almost unanimous: she’s a natural and 100% heroine material. That
Tollywood
has a new heroine is a certainty; what remains to be seen is whether she’ll continue working only with Dev, or will other production houses rope her in too.
PRODUCTION HOUSE TAKES ON FEDERATION
It all started when the shooting of Chaalbaz got stalled in London on June 22. Reason, the Federation called back all its technicians, as the film unit had apparently not taken along the regulation 19 members. The producer said the rule had expired in 2015 and that it was not possible to take along 19 technicians as there were visa-related issues. He also argued that why should the Federation decide on a film’s technical team when the producer is spending the money. With each passing day, the fight grew uglier, but the production house just went ahead with the shoot. Now, the film is set to release in February 2018.
A SPATE OF MISHAPS
The industry had its share of fatal accidents this year. The first shock was the sudden demise in March of Dohar frontman and noted singer Kalikaprasad Bhattacharjee in a car accident near Gurap in Hooghly. Then came a bike accident in April in which the grandson of Soumitra Chatterjee, actor-musician Ronodeep Bose, sustained severe head injuries and then slipped into coma following surgery. He’s still in coma. No sooner had the industry got over the young actor’s accident, 27-year-old model and television anchor
Sonika Chauhan died in a fatal car crash near Lake Market in the wee hours of April 29. Actor
Vikram Chatterjee, who was at the wheels, was also injured.
THE FESTIVAL MAN RULES ON
It’s said Kaushik Ganguly makes films for festivals. And this is being proven right for eight straight years now, with his Bishorjon getting selected for the Indian Panorama section of IFFI Goa this year. The film also bagged a Best Film award recently, with Jaya Ahsan being crowned the Best Actress. She repeated the feat at the Hyderabad International Film Festival, where Kaushik was adjudged the Best Director and the Best Supporting Actor. The film went on to become the Best Feature Film in Regional Language (Bengali) at the 64th National Film Awards.
SLEUTH POWER RUNS VIDEO STREAMING PLATFORMS
It’s a phenomenon that’s taking the world by storm, and if trade pundits are to be believed, online streamed content is THE future of entertainment. But while the rest of the world swear by Netflix and Amazon Prime, some Bengalis dare to differ. That’s because of two Bong video streaming platforms, which have been going pretty big on promises about original content. Even the cityscape was dotted with huge billboards throwing at you rather suggestive images of a lust-driven boudi. In reality, both platforms are banking on Bengal’s bread-and butter whodunits — Anirban Bhattacharya is Byomkesh on one platform and Parambrata Chattopadhyay is Feluda on the other. So much for original content!
BOLLYWOOD FORAYS
When it comes to the subject of Tollywood members foraying into Bollywood, the year has been a mixed bag. While Srijit Mukherji’s much-hyped Vidya Balan-starrer, Begum Jaan,bombed big at the box office,Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Pink, helmed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, raked in the moolah and also received rave reviews. Anupam Roy, too, was appreciated for his compositions in Pink. Another actor to make a mark was Saswata Chatterjee, who won hearts as
Ranbir Kapoor’s spy/adventurer father in Jagga Jasoos — a film that hardly managed to make a dent at the box office despite being quite an entertaining musical. On the other hand, Parambrata Chatterjee and Ritabhari Chakraborty are part of
Anushka Sharma’s home production, Pari. Agnidev Chatterjee is also shooting Bablu Bachelor with Sharman Joshi.
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