Tollywood Roundup: Bengali celebs and movies which made headlines this week

Whether it’s the rumour about Raja Chanda making Bollywood debut, Ujaan Ganguly in Raj Chakraborty’s next, the latest news about next Byomkesh film or Jaya Ahsan announcing her next production ‘Phurut’ to Parambrata working with Vinay Pathak, Ritwick Chakraborty’s in Anik Dutta’s next; it was a week full of rumours and exciting news from the Tollywood industry. Here is a look at Bengali cinema's 10 of the most exciting news from this week.

According to industry sources, Raja Chanda all set to direct his first Hindi film. The noted filmmaker, who has delivered a number of commercial hits in Bengali cinema, is ready for his Bollywood debut. Speculation is rife the script for this upcoming Hindi comedy film is already prepared by Raja Chanda's favorite Juhi Chaturvedi. The filmmaker who recently got married to model turned actor Paean Sarkar is keen to cast Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak for his first Bollywood directorial. He will start shooting the Hindi film once he wraps up the shoot of his current project which stars Dev and Rukmini in the lead.

Rukmini Maitra has put all the rumours to bed about her being cast as Padma Shri Subhasini Mistry in the upcoming biopic. Ever since Dev made the announcement about this much anticipated biopic earlier this year fans are anxiously waiting to hear who will play the titular role in the film which will be directed by Aniket Chattopadhyay. Recently an unconfirmed source from Tollywood spread the rumour that Rukmini has been roped in to play the female lead in the biopic. However, the pretty actress cleared all the doubts as she took to her Twitter handle to clarify she is not playing Subhasini Mistry in the film. She wrote: “Haha! Sorry for the disappointment but I will not be playing #PadmaShriSubasiniMistry on screen. This is a random rumour guys!”

Ujaan Ganguly is making news even before the release of his first film ‘Rosogolla’ on December 21. His performance has earned accolades since the trailer of the film was released. And now rumour has it Raj Chakraborty has offered the talented young actor the titular role in his next film. It will reportedly be an out-and-out romantic drama. However, Ujaan is yet to sign the dotted line. The leading lady for this film is also not yet decided. It will be interesting to see how Ujaan, son of Kaushik and Churni Ganguly, perform in a commercial movie.

After ‘Debi’, Jaya Ahsan has now announced the name of the second movie to be made under the banner of her production house ‘C-te Cinema’. She recently took her Facebook page to make the announcement as she revealed the film title is ‘Phurut’. The Bangladeshi actress also shared a paper artwork of the newly announced film. She captioned it: “We are coming up with a new film in 2019. Details will be revealed soon.” As soon as the news came out, everybody had the same question. Will she play the lead role in ‘Phurut’? “That’s yet to be decided. I might or might not appear in the film. If we find a better fit for the lead role, I won’t act,” Jaya replied.

While this year Arindam Sil has enjoyed one of the best pujas in his life as ‘Byomkesh Gowtro’ continues to run havoc at the Box Office, Up next for Arindam is a thriller. And what about the next Byomkesh film? Is it coming next year? What will be the story this time around? Well, Arindam accidentally revealed the news about his next Byomkesh film at the sidelines of a media event during the recently concluded Hyderabad Film Festival. “I have already started planning for my next Byomkesh film and it will be set against the backdrop of Nainital. As of now, I have thought about one story and that’s Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s another epic thriller ‘Magna Mainak’ but everything’s is in the preliminary stage,” said the noted director.

It seems Parambrata Chatterjee doesn’t have the time to even breathe. After completing the shoot of his upcoming web series in London, the actor-director was in Lucknow recently to shoot for director Seema Pahwa’s directotial debut ‘Pind Daan’. The Hindi social drama also features a number of popular versatile actors like Vinay Pathak, Vikrant Massey, Manoj Pahwa and Ninand Kamat among others. For those unaware, Seema received rave reviews for her brilliant performances in Bollywood films like Ankhon Dekhi, Bareilly Ki Barfi, Tere Bin Laden.

‘Piya Re’, ‘Bagh Bandi Khela’, ‘Googly’, ‘BhootChakra Pvt. Ltd.’ – the list goes on and each film has a common link. Guess what! All the films star Soham Chakraborty and Srabanti Chatterjee in the lead. Looks the pair is more comfortable in sharing screen space than others in recent times. And now, Soham-Srabanti Jodi is set to team up once again is Abhimanyu Mukherjee’s yet to be titled romantic comedy. Right now Abhimanyu is in a hurry to complete the shoot for a social satire ‘Teko’ which stars Ritwick Chakraborty and Srabanti in the lead. But the talented director will start shooting with Soham-Srabanti as soon as he wraps up ‘Teko’.

We already know Soumitra Chatterjee is on-board for Anik Dutta’s upcoming social drama which is based on a story by late writer Ramapada Chowdhury. Anik remains tight-lipped about the story only revealing the title of his film as ‘Borunbabur Bondhu’. Beside Soumitra Chatterjee, there are a lot of surprises in the remaining cast as well. This is the first time Ritwick Chakraborty will be working with Anik Dutta. Arpita Chatterjee and Bidipta Chakrabarty too will be seen in pivotal roles. But who is playing which character is still a mystery as Anik prefers not to reveal any more details right now. He has even changed the Title of the story.

He is returning to his detective avatar in young director Abhishek Bagchi’s upcoming thriller ‘Boba Rahashya’. Abhishek plans to make series of films revolving around a character Inspector Gorai’ and ‘Boba Rahashya’ will be the first one of the series. The film will go on floors on January 12 and will be extensively shot in Jharkhand. Beside Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Rahul Banerjee will play an interesting character. Bangladeshi actress Nusrat Imroz Tisha from ‘Doob’ fame will play the female lead. Sudiptaa Chakraborty will play a psychiatrist.

Ranjan Ghosh’s ‘Rong Beronger Kori’ won as many as four awards at the recently concluded Telangana Bengali Film Festival. It won awards at the Best Film (Jury), Best Director (Jury), Best Actress (Jury) Arunima Ghosh, Best Supporting Actor (Popular) Rwitobroto Mukherjee and the Jury Special Mention Kharaj Mukherjee. The film deals with the issue of demonetisation as four different yet connected stories combine the narrative. Initially, Ranjan Ghosh faced some protests from the Hindu Jagran Mancha in Kolkata for naming two of the lead characters Ram and Sita in the film. However, it was later resolved as the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) passed the film without any cuts and it finally released earlier in March this year.