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

Whether it’s the super hilarious ‘Hoichoi Unlimited’ trailer, the craze surrounding ‘Kishore Kumar Junior’, Abir Chatterjee’s successful run this year, the latest update on Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Vinci Da’ or the Jisshu Sengupta’s stunning revelation about his early career; 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.

Srijit Mukherji’s Puja release ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’ has already sent the Bengali movie buffs into a tizzy with Industry biggies also going gaga over the much-anticipated court room drama. The film is largely based on ‘A Princely Imposter’ by Partha Chatterjee. But did you know Prosenjit chatterjee had a plan to direct a Hindi film based on the Bhawal Sanyasi case. He had reportedly thought of two names Hrithik Roshan and Ranbir Kapoor to play the titular role. If everything happened according to plan, the shooting would have started in 2016. But later the project was shelved due to some unknown reasons.

The trailer of Aniket Chattopadhyay’s next ‘Hoichoi unlimited’ is finally out and without revealing much details about the plot it rather concentrates on showing the fun-filled hilarious scenes from the comedy caper. The trailer starts with an announcement about a twist in the hijack of an aircraft from Kolkata to Mumbai. Next we see, Dev’s character is about to commit suicide from the terrace of a high rise, while his friends (Saswata Chatterjee, Kharaj Mukherjee and Arna Mukhopadhyay) are already hanging from it. Suddenly Rajatabha Dutta, a priest, enters the scene and advises them to “have their life serviced”. The four partners in crime then plan a trip to Uzbekistan. The trailer further offers a few comic snippets about Kharaj Mukherjee’s confusion over his ‘two wives’. Dev’s wife (Koushani Mukherjee), daughter of a rich business tycoon, informs him her father has decided to get her married once again to someone else and from now on Dev is not allowed in her home. What happens next forms the crux of the film.

After ‘Noor Jahan’, director Raj Chakraborty has already started working on his upcoming home production. He is all set to bring back the love saga ‘Prem Amar’ but it will not be a sequel to the 2009 romantic drama. Directed by Bidula Bhattacharjee, ‘Prem Amar 2’ narrates a different love story. But following a recent turn of events, it’s shooting has been stopped in Bangladesh. The entire team was shooting a sequence at the MC College in Sylhet when local police stopped them as they claimed the production unit had no permission to work in Bangladesh. However, the Indo-Bangladesh joint venture’s co-producer Jazz Multimedia claims that they have the valid documents. ‘Prem Amar 2’ sees ‘Noor Jahan’ fame Adrit Roy and Puja Cherry Roy in the lead.

Prosenjit Chatterjee’s next ‘kishore Kumar Junior’ has already sent the industry into a tizzy with its recently released trailer with his fans and industry biggies alike going gaga over the upcoming musical drama. Now, Amitabh Bachchan has joined the bandwagon sending best wishes to Prosenjit for his upcoming film directed by Kaushik Ganguly. The Bollywood legend took to his Twitter handle showering praise on Prosenjit. He wrote: “T 2937 - Prosenjit .. 'BUMBA' , friend and colleague brings out his new film 'Kishore Kumar Junior' directed by National and International Award winning Director Kaushik Ganguly .. releasing during this Durga Puja.”

Abir Chatterjee remains the only actor to play the characters of Bengal’s two iconic sleuths, our very own Feluda and Satyanweshi Byomkesh Bakshi. The dashing actor is really on a roll this year. All of his four films – ‘Ami Joy Chatterjee’, ‘Guptadhaner Sandhane’, ‘Bidaay Byomkesh’ and ‘Flat No. 609’ - released till now have received a great response from the critics and fans alike. The list doesn’t end here. Three more films of him will release in 2018 – the two Puja releases ‘Manojder Odbhut Bari’, one of the all-time great fiction works for many Bengalis and ‘Byomkesh Gotro’, followed by Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Shah Jahan Regency’ during Christmas.

Renowned singer-lyricist, Anupam Roy has lent his soulful voice to the latest song from ‘Debi’ which is actress Jaya Ahsan’s first film as a producer. The romantic number ‘Du Mutho Bikel’ is penned, composed and sung by Anupam himself. The melodious love balad portrays the cozy moments between the film’s protagonists Ranu (Jaya Ahsan) and Anis (Animesh Aich). ‘Debi’ is based on Humayun Ahmed’s famous literary work ‘Misir Ali’ series. Chanchal Chowdhury will be seen as the fictional character.

A philanthropic trust, aimed to honour the huge contributions made by all the behind-the-scenes heroes, has announced the nomination categories and the performer’s names for the 5th edition of StageCraft Award 2018 in presence of Usha Uthup, founder trustee, StageCraft Foundation and Prosenjit Chatterjee, the face of StageCraft Foundation. This year there are 16 award categories, three special awards and one Hall Of Fame award including the Best Decorator and Fabricator, Best Stage Prop Supplier, Best Event Set Designer, Best Sound and Light Company, Best Sound Engineer (Stage) and many others.

Prosenjit Chatterjee recently shared the stage with his father, the evergreen Biswajit Chatterjee, during a music gala to celebrate the yerteryear hero’s golden jubilee in the film industry. An elated Prosenjit took to his Instagram handle to share a vibrant picture from that image and captioned it: “Sr Chatterjee and Jr Chatterjee.” The picture itself is a treat to watch as the two generation of acting legends can be seen performing live shaking their legs.

Post the release of his next ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’ on October 12, Srijit Mukherji will return the sets to direct his next ‘Vinci Da’. Touted to be an intense thriller, it will see Rudranil Ghosh and Ritwick Chakraborty playing the protagonists along with Sohini Sarkar and Anirban Bhattacharya. This will be Srijit’s third thriller after B’aishe Srabon’ and ‘Chotushkone’. While Rudranil Ghosh and Anirban Bhattacharya are common names in his movies, ‘Vinci Da’ will be his second outing with Sohini Sarkar and Ritwick Chakraborty after ‘Rajkahini’ and ‘Nirbaak’ respectively.

Jisshu Sengupta is right now on a roll. Once mocked as an unlucky actor, Jisshu has come a long way to prove himself as one of the most talented and commercially viable actors in Bengali industry. While speaking of those days, the actor recently revealed, "I have worked in Rituparno Ghosh's ‘Chitrangada’ and did ‘Jatra’ at the same time." He strongly believes Srijit has helped him to leave behind that dreadful period. Jisshu is now all geared up for the release of ‘Ek je Chhilo Raja’. He is also playing a key role in ‘Manikarnika’ and the Telugu biopic of NTR.