Filmmaker Ram Kamal Mukherjee brings a galaxy of actors in his next, ‘Lokkhikantopur Local’

National Award winning filmmaker Ram Kamal Mukherjee returns to his roots in Kolkata once again after his magnum opus, Binodiini- Ekti Natir Upakhyan. This time he promises to serve a completely different genre for his audiences with a slice of life cinema, Lokkhikantopur Local.

Ram's film cracked a huge casting coupe, in bringing unseen mega stars under one roof for the first time in a Bengali film. The film stars Rituparna Sengupta, Kaushik Ganguly, Paoli Dam, Chandrayee Ghosh, Indranil Sengupta, Sangita Sinha, Shaurya Bhattacharjee, Saayoni Ghosh, Rajnandini Paul and Debasish Mondal in pivotal roles.

The film has been shot across various locations in Bengal by ace cinematographer Ayan Sil and introduces Manish Chakraborty as music director. "For any director, it's an honour to work with such professional actors who knows their craft well enough. From Kaushik to Rituparna, from Paoli to Chandrayee, everyone was so involved in the minutest details that it helped us as a team to deliver nothing less than best," says Mumbai-based filmmaker Ram.

Sangita who plays one of the female protagonist, went through rigorous training under theatre exponent Daminee Benny Basu. "I believe, cinema is completely director's medium, Ram Kamal wanted a certain body language and diction which Benny helped me in achieving," says Sangita, who worked with Mukherjee in his internationally acclaimed short film Rickshawala in 2020.

"We have been planning to collaborate and do a nice feature film. When Ram Kamal da approached me with the subject, I instantly jumped out of joy. I know for a fact that this film will connect with everybody," says Sangita, who is planning to join hands with a Mumbai based studio for distribution and sales of the film. "Talks are on, we will announce everything once we sign on the dotted lines," added Sangita.

The film deals with different standards of life and vocation which has been beautifully weaved in through the right fabrics by costume designer Poulami Gupta, while veteran art director Amit Chatterjee who worked earlier with Mukherjee for his Hindi short, Broken Frame reunites with him.

Rituparna who plays the role of a middle class homemaker in the film gets nostalgic talking about her association with Ram. "I call him Aarkay, a name which was fondly showered on him when he was a cub reporter in Kolkata almost three decades ago. I had just started by journey as an actor while he was freelancing for a Mumbai weekly. That's how we bonded, and we have always been in touch. I have seen Aarkay's film Season's Greetings and Ek Duaa, and I feel that he mastered the art of sketching the character graph like a symphony. Every chord matters in his framework," says Rituparna, who is riding high on her latest commercial success Ajogya.