We must all be together in this crisis: ‘Guldasta’ director Arjunn

Arjunn Dutta’s second film ‘Guldasta’ is one of the Bengali films whose release has been postponed due to coronavirus outbreak. The social drama was supposed to hit the big screens on April 24. However, the makers have stated any further announcement on the release date will be made after April 3.
“We are closely monitoring the situation. We will have to wait now before deciding on the next release date.The country is passing through its toughest phase and we must all be together,” said the director.
Produced by Roop Production and Entertainment, ‘Guldasta’ tells the story of three women namely Srirupa, Dolly and Renu, who are connected in some way. Portraying these characters are three of the most reliable character artists in Tollywood - Swastika Mukherjee, Arpita Chatterjee and Debjani Chatterjee. The film also stars Ishaan Mazumder, Anubhav Kanjilal, Anuradha Mukherjee and others. The film follows the journey of three distinctive women intertwined in a web of make-believe emotions.
Women have always been Arjunn’s trustiest subjects since he started his filmmaking career, and when asked about the difficulties in penning women characters, he has an honest reply: "I feel writing about women is my comfort zone, I have been in the presence of women like my mum, my grandmother since I was a kid, and I understand them and the stories come out quite organically. When it comes to the women in Guldasta, I've seen the characters up close in real life.”
How important is it for a film to have a social message, we asked the young director. “What is very important for me is to remember that first and foremost, the audience is coming into the theatre to be entertained. Social messages are important, of course, but one can’t set out with an agenda to send out a social message through one’s film, because it will show. I personally am not for such kind of force-feeding, if I may call it that. I could have easily promoted my first film Abyakto around the social message it carries, but I chose not to do that. As I have been saying to everyone who has asked – it’s just a mother-son relationship story. That’s all there is to it,” explains Arjunn whose third film ‘Shrimati’s shooting got stalled recently amid the COVID-19 crisis.