Interview: Koel Mallick and Parambrata Chatterjee get candid about Sagardwipey Jawker Dhan

It's their third outing together after Hemlock Society and Highway, which comes close on the heels of individual box office successes during this Puja. We are talking about Koel Mallick and Parambrata Chatterjee. Koel’s Mitin Mashi is still running in the theatres and Parambrata’s Satyanweshi Byomkesh clicked unexpectedly well, despite getting a lesser number of halls and bad timings.

And now, they are back on the big screen to entice the audience in a fun-filled fantasy adventure, Sagardwipey Jawker Dhan, directed by Sayantan Ghosal. Very different in their approach and personality, we had an interesting animated chat with the stars on their success stories, and the changing dynamics of the Bengali film industry, over the years with some very delectable food at Inox Insignia South City Mall. Excerpts:

Parambrata, this will be the second film in Jawker Dhan series, but the script is completely new and has no relation to the book by Hemendra Kumar Roy. Script-wise, Chander Pahar’s sequel, Amazon Obhijaan was not very credible. How credible has the script been kept?

Parambrata Chatterjee: Chander Pahar is universally popular among Bengalis, but Hemendra’s Jawker Dhan too was quite popular among our generation and many of us have read him so, yes, there are set standards about the films based on such books in the audience’s mind and the script and the plot should be gripping enough and it’s of more concern, though for that matter, any script should be good nowadays. Jawker Dhan was one of the biggest hits of 2017 and people are looking forward to its sequel and so, we thought of making the scale bigger than the first one.

I chose to be a part of such an adventure series since working in films like this gives you a bigger audience — children can watch it, you get the entire family and it’s a film to watch during holidays. There’s a lot of special effects, which is usually not there in Bengali films.

We actors do films for two reasons, one for posterity and the other for reaching out to the widest possible mass space, and this kind of fantasy adventures is being appreciated by the audience a lot, in recent times.

Koel, were you a part of this film for the same reasons?

Koel Mallick: I said yes to the film because I wanted to be a part of a treasure hunt film for the longest time. It’s a genre we grew up watching, and it’s really much less explored in Bengali films. Apart from the visual extravaganza, there is also a lot of imagination that’s involved when you act in such films with heavy visual effects.

My career is full of romantic films and off-late, I’m also doing a lot of thrillers, so being a part of an adventure film was fascinating, and I enjoyed every moment.

Sayantan was telling us about the risks that you actors had taken during shooting the film…

PC: Yeah, there was scuba diving in the Gulf of Cambay. There was a spontaneously choreographed fight sequence with a real boxer on spot and instead of him, it was I who ended up punching him on the face.

KM: Yes, and you always have to look pleasant, even if it’s freezing. But while shooting, you have to discount the discomfitures, because no one is going to listen to your whines (laughs).

There was this particular island we were shooting in which gets inundated after a certain time every day and invariably our shooting crossed the stipulated time with the water advancing on the island. We were left stranded since the boats didn’t want to come.

I felt so scared as I am extremely hydrophobic, and I don’t like swimming since when I was in fifth standard I almost drowned.

PC: I too don’t know swimming.

KM: Yeah, he was bleary-eyed when he went for the scuba dive. It seemed like he completely surrendered to destiny.

Why didn’t you learn swimming?

PC: When I was in school, I was enrolled in a swimming session that began at 6.40 in the morning and it was terrorising to wake up so early. Hence after the first season, where I barely learnt to swim, I never went back. Till the age of 18-19 years, I was opposite to what I am now. I was lazy and a big-time procrastinator.

KM: Thank God it got reversed (laughs)!

Do you both feel that the age of hit on-screens pairs is gone?

PC: More or less true, the reason being the kind of films that are made now.

KM: Content is the ultimate king, and I feel the audience too are bored of the same old pairs and want to see some fresh, out-of-the-box, apparently odd and interesting pairs on screen.

Who makes for an odd yet interesting pair on screen?

KM: I feel Parambrata and Jaya Ahsan will make for an odd yet very interesting pair.

PC: Why? I think it’s quite a predictable pairing…

KM: Not at all. I can’t say now that you and Abir make an interesting pair on the screen (laughs).

PC: In fact, Abir and my pairing actually look interesting on screen. But please explain, why do you feel Jaya and I will be an interestingly odd pair?

KM: Look, we are used to seeing Jaya in very heavy and serious roles, while Param has a very boyish charm. They will look interesting.

PC: I feel Koel and Anirban Bhattacharya will look interesting. They come across as very different personalities. Anirban is extremely careful while choosing his words, while Koel is very exuberant and it would be lovely to see them together on screen.

How is Koel as a co-actor, naughty or boring?

PC: I will give her 11 and a half on 10 on the naughtiness quotient. She is far from boring. An extremely observant person, she keeps reading everyone on set, but her polite demeanour masks her act of constant scanning (laughs).

Which are Koel’s best performances?

PC: Premer Kahini and Love.

And which are Parambrata’s best performances?

KM: Samantaral and Hercules.

PC: Knowing Koel for some time now, I feel she has reached that age and maturity, and that stage in her career, where doing love stories shouldn’t define her anymore and off-late, she has been trying to redefine her acting career, and that really happened with Mitin Mashi. I am really happy about that. I was supposed to do Mitin Mashi for the web and now, after Koel, I have to be really choosy about whom to cast.

Cast her…

PC: We will come to that later.

Koel, you must be enjoying this phase of your career…

KM: I am getting to explore so many characters. In Mitin Mashi, I am this confident woman, for whom nothing is impossible, whereas in Rokto Rohoshyo, people will see me playing a completely vulnerable character, who is a loser. In Bonny, it’s yet another different character. So, yes, it’s an interesting phase.

How have you seen the industry change in all these years?

PC: It has grown enormously, in size.

KM: The tendency to typecast actors is gradually being done away with. Now, the division between commercial and arthouse actors is blurring.

What are your upcoming projects?

PC: I will be seen in Srijit Mukherji’s Dwitiyo Purush, Anindya Bikas Datta’s Shakuner Lom, Arindam Bhattacharya’s Antardhan, Sudeshna Roy and Abhijit Guha’s Sraboner Dhara, and Raj Chakraborty’s next and my own film, Bonny. There are two Hindi films too — Seema Pahwa’s Ramprasad Ki Tervi and Anvita Dutt’s Bulbul. Also, I will start shooting next for Byomkesh, based on Durga Rohoishyo, from May-June 2020. I will also be making a biopic on actor Soumtra Chatterjee.

KM: I have Rokto Rohoshyo and Bonny coming up, and I will also commence shooting for Firche Mitin next year.

Location Courtesy: Inox Insignia South City Mall

Pictures: Ramkrishna Samanta

sharmishtha.g @newindianexpress.com

@sharmidas