In the world of unrest and unease comes a breath of fresh air as director Dhrubo Banerjee adapts Rajkumar Moitra’s Bogla Mama on screen. As Bogla Mama Jug Jug Jiyo releases today in theatres, Indulge had a free-wheeling chat with the firebrand five assistants of Bogla Mama played by Riddhi Sen, Ujan Chatterjee, Mithun Gupta, Jeet Sundor, and Sudip Dhara and Ditipriya Roy who plays a very special character in the movie.
Tell us about your roles and what attracted you to it.
Riddhi: My character is called Kebu, who is the nephew of Bogla Mama. He stays in the city and comes to the village to visit his uncle. He is entering a very different realm, where Bogla Mama and his world are introduced. The purpose is basically to bring back the lost paraculture or community living to the people.
Sudip: I have played the character of Sadhan, who is the naughtiest lad in the village. He steals hen eggs and does stuff like that. There is a beautiful simplicity in the story, which attracted me a lot. It also brings back the nostalgia.
Ujan: I play Tridib. The boy is Bangal and speaks in the dialect. It’s interesting to note that all five assists of Bogla Mama are very different and that is why they are in a very beautiful bond of friendship. Also, because he is Bangal sometimes people tease him slightly. He’s a fun character.
Jeet: My character Dhanu is by default a social worker. He’s the force that binds the five friends together.
Ditipriya: I play Madhuja and I was introduced to this group by Kebu. Madhuja and Kebu have a romantic subplot.
Mithun: My character is Naru. He is very interesting because if an incident happens, everyone becomes nervous for me.
If there’s one thing from the 1980s you would want to bring back, what would it be?
Ujan: Community feeling. We have tried to create a sequence where everyone is eating together on the verandah. It’s not just the immediate family members but also the neighbourhood boys who join in the meal and adda. The feeling of community existence is gone today since we live in isolation, and I want to bring that back.
Riddhi: I would love to bring back any sports tournament which happened in a lot of neighbourhoods, especially in the winter. I miss that a lot. I have heard stories from Baba [ Kaushik Sen] who used to play football. Today we don’t have such sports events in the neighbourhood so I would like to bring them back.
Jeet: I would like to get rid of mobile phones and bring back landlines. The wait for a landline call has a beautiful patience in it. I do not think we need that amount of information in our lives.
Ditipriya: People were less judgmental I guess. It’s not possible to bring that back. But if that simplicity can be brought. Parar club is also something that people look forward to. Going there in the evenings, playing carom etc. Bringing that back would be good, though it’s difficult now. Chop and Muri adda…
Sudip: I think we need to get back the unity within people back.
Can you recall one comic situation or adventurous moment from your life?
Jeet: I had once gone for trekking and the people of the village we were passing told us that there’s a herd of wild elephants passing through. That was a very fascinating and frightening experience for me. The fact that we might die of being trampled by elephants was fascinating.
Ditipriya (laughs): I have to say this, the most difficult moment during the shoot of this cinema was to handle Jeet’s PJs.
Ujaan: I was returning from Hampi after an acting workshop and faced turbulence during a flight. That was a different experience. It’s not that I will die right now but then the turbulence is happening.
Riddhi: I think falling in love is both adventurous and comical. When you fall in love you start doing things that you have never done in your life.
Ditipriya: I once went to the mountains and fell, cut and bruised myself, and started laughing which went on for four hours. I have many such moments. Sometimes, in extremely serious moments also I start laughing. Once I had gone for paragliding. Most people who went with me had come back and I was roaming the skies for almost two hours because the air condition was so bad that I wasn’t able to touch the ground. People thought the worst but when I touched down and they enquired, I could not answer them but went on laughing for two hours.
Do you think comedy is an under-explored genre?
Ujan: I can say that we are circling around thrillers and detective stories a lot. From that point, it was necessary to have a comedy movie. But I can’t say it’s under-explored because there is groundbreaking work. Also, comedy is not linear, there’s dark comedy, black comedy and other sub-genres.
Riddhi: Humour is something that exists in every scenario. Something really sad can also be said humorously. But yes, in Bangla industry movies that have genuinely been able to make people laugh are few in number. Ballabhpurer Roopkotha I remember but before and after that I don’t remember right now something that has given the audience immense comical satisfaction. There have been works like Dhonni Meye and all quite some time ago. So, Bogla Mama is one movie that will give happiness to the people.
Mithun: The actors in the movie have played several comic characters.
Sudip: It’s a tough genre for both the actors and directors.
Your upcoming works
Jeet: Shyam Bahadur and Raja Rani Romeo which is a web series.
Ujan: I’ll be doing Talmar Romeo Juliet
Ditipriya: I’ll be wrapping up my web series.
Riddhi: I’m having Daktar Kaku and Mon Kharap by Pavel. I also have shows of Hamlet. My first directorial work is soon to come.
Bogla Mama Jug Jug Jiyo hits the screens today!