Director Bratya Basu on his film Hubba

Actor-director-politician Bratya Basu’s latest release is based on the life of Shyamal Das alias Hubba Shyamal, a gangster from Hooghly accused of several murders. He was found dead in a canal in 2011. Starring Mosharraf Karim as the titular character along with Indraneil Sengupta and others, the idea of Hubba first struck Basu, when the former got arrested in 2005. Basu feels that Hubba’s life has all the elements of a commercial film. He speaks with us at length about the film and more. Excerpts:

Like many other films/shows made on gangsters, does Hubba also talk about the alleged nexus between power and the underworld?

I think this reference is mostly found in the paradigm of films made in Bollywood. Let’s consider The City of Gods, we don’t see any such nexus, so this is an obvious simplification that Mumbai probably loves to do — that the criminal world will necessarily have a deep-rooted political connection. Let me remind you of Suketu Mehta’s The Maximum City, where he shows how the underworld runs without any help or support from the politicians. They just don’t care. If politicians and the underworld had been connected, Dawood Ibrahim would have probably been behind bars by now! I watched a recent documentary on him, and never did I feel that there was any role of politicians. So, the parameter or generalisation that has been created is not much of an importance to me.

What did you refer to while writing the script?

It was IPS officer Supratim Sarkar’s book Abar Goyendapith that built my initial interest in Hubba Shyamal, aka Shyamal Das. Through sources in police, I connected with people who were close associates of Hubba and came to know stories and episodes from his life. That helped me a lot in research while writing the script. Also, since I love watching gangster movies, that also helped me.

Was Indraneil Sengupta always your first choice as the detective?

No. Another actor was to play the character, but he wasn’t ready to shave off his stubble. Then I thought of Indraneil, and I am so impressed working with him that I would love to work with him again.

When can we see you again on screen?

Nothing right now. Nobody has approached me in recent times, except Pratim D. Gupta in whose film I’ve played a guest role. I think this is a perception among filmmakers that I am very busy. Or, maybe the reason is something different altogether of which I am not aware.

Any upcoming work?

I am writing a script for a film and will let you know the details soon. I am also writing a play.

Hubba is running at the theatres.