Weekend roundup: Here's what made headlines in Tollywood this week

If you have missed the exciting news, gossip or latest developments that have rocked Bengali cinema this week, here is a weekly roundup for you. Take a look:

A Kolkata court has ruled that the controversial wedding of Nikhil Jain and Nusrat Jahan is not valid. The court declared it wasn’t a legal wedding between the estranged couple.

Earlier in June this year, actor-politician Nusrat Jahan had released a shocking statement claiming that her marriage with Nikhil Jain happened according to Turkish law and that’s why it isn’t valid in India. She also alleged that her family jewelry and some other assets were 'illegally held back' by Nikhil. She even claimed that her "funds were mishandled" from several accounts without her permission.

5 times Nusrat Jahan and Nikhil Jain’s marriage looked ‘made in Heaven’

Ever since she made her debut in Anindya Chattopadhyay’s ‘Prem Tame’ Susmita Chatterjee has become the dark horse of Tollywood. The talented actress recently finished the shoot of ‘Jai Kali Kolkattawali’ and now she is set to pair up with Soham Chakraborty in Premendu Bikash Chaki’s upcoming rom-com ‘Paka Dekha’. Apart from the lead pair of Soham and Susmita the film will also have Kharaj Mukherjee, Laboni Sarkar, Sumanta Mukhopadhyay, Dolon Roy and others in key roles. Another attraction is the big screen return of veteran actor Dipankar Dey after a long gap. Jeet Gannguli will be composing the music of the rom-com which will soon hit the shooting floors.

After wrapping up the shoot of ‘Shabaash Mithu’ with Taapsee Pannu, Srijit Mukherji has kick-started the shoot of his next film ‘Sherdil’ based on a real-life story. The film focusing on human-nature conflict will see acting powerhouse Pankaj Tripathi playing a village head, who is forced to go deep into the jungle in order to save his poor family. The film which was supposed to roll in November last year was pushed back due to the pandemic and now the acclaimed director has finally started shooting in North Bengal.

Sherdil is inspired by a real-life incident that took place in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, where villagers used to leave their elderly family members for tigers to prey on, and then claim compensation from the administration. However, a series of attacks on the elderly villagers make the forest authorities suspicious about the actual happenings.

Rajaditya Banerjee is back with yet another moving documentary on the Bohurupies. Titled 'Dying Art of the Bohurupies of Bengal', this one is yet another project on which the independent filmmaker was working for years. 'Dying Art of Bohurupis of Bengal' whose teaser is already out is an Indo-Finnish collaborative production and deals with the lives of almost extinct polymorphic artists of Bengal. Both the art of polymorphism and the artists' lives have been showcased in the film including interviews of legendary polymorphic artists like Subol Das Boiragya, Ravi Pandeet, Rajendra Byadh, Bhanu Bajikar, and many others.

Amid all those gossip, rumours surrounding them Nusrat Jahan and Yash Dasgupta are pairing up for their third film together in Shieladitya Moulik’s next political drama. Titled ‘Mastermoshai Apni Kichu Dekhenni’, the film will see another male lead but it hasn’t been decided who will play the role. The Shubh Muhurat is already done and now, if everything goes according to plan, the shooting will start from December.

Shieladitya doesn’t want to divulge much about the storyline right now but he’s super excited about the project, “In the film mastermoshai witnesses the murder of his favourite student who was killed by someone who is not only a student of the teacher but also the boyfriend of his own daughter. Through this killing we will see the student politics scenario of West Bengal taking a roller coaster ride.”