From a children's magazine to the big screens, how Rappa Roy is finally releasing at the theatres!

Sujog Bandopadhyay's comic character Rappa Roy was first published in a Bengali children's magazine. And now, it is finally making in to the big screens. After years of animated series and films being made on the iconic Bengali comics like Hnada Bhnoda, Nonte Fonte, Bantul The Great and even Feluda, Rappa Roy too gets added to the list. The film, Rappa Roy & Full Stop Dot Com, will release at the theatres on Friday, December 5.

Rappa Roy & Full Stop Dot Com is all about a new gen detective and a quirky setting

Rappa Roy (Arpan Ghoshal), a gifted cartoonist in his late 20s, lives in Kolkata with his stern yet caring father. Longing to pursue investigative work, he turns to investigating, blogging & vlogging—documenting social issues, crimes and accidents across the city with the help of his childhood friend Tony (Debashis Roy). His fearless and authentic content quickly gains attention, until he accidentally captures violent acts linked to the dreaded group Full Stop Dot Com.

Refusing to bow to threats or remove his posts and evidence, Rappa unknowingly puts rising actress Dolphin Ganguly (Alivia Sarkar) in danger, leading the gang to target her as leverage. Forced into a dangerous showdown, Rappa races against time to rescue Dolphin, relying on his courage, wit, and unshakable bond with Tony as he confronts a ruthless criminal network determined to silence him.

Arpan says, "Rappa Roy came to me as a sudden opportunity, and I immediately said yes — because playing a character from Bengali comics is a rare privilege in our industry. Opportunities like this are truly the rarest of the rare in Bengali cinema. I had almost zero time for preparation since I was brought on overnight. But what really helped was the preparation and clarity of the directorial team. They were already in the middle of shooting, yet there was never any rush from the director to finish a certain number of scenes in a day. Since I joined the project so suddenly, I expected it to be difficult to cope. But my incredible co-actors made the entire process effortless for me.

"Shantilal Mukherjee, who plays my father, was the first person I worked with. He was so smooth and effortless in his performance that it instantly put me at ease. Alivia and Debashis were also extremely encouraging — they kept me motivated throughout the shoot," he said.

"We boys — Prantik Banerjee, Saurav Das, Sabyasachi Chowdhury, Debashis Roy and Debasish Mondal — had a fantastic time together. Prantik and Saurav are probably the most entertaining seniors you could ever have in a makeup room. But they were also the first to get worried when, during one scene, they were driving and I was positioned precariously on top of their car. They even scolded me later for taking such a risk," he exclaimed.

For director-producer Dhiman Barman, it was a learning experience. "As a debutant producer and director, I had extra responsibilities to share. It had both pros and cons. On one hand, I could take quick decisions about funding requirements of the project. On the other hand, I had limited time to devote to creatives. Being a new producer, I was not aware of many aspects of the film making process, I ended up not doing proper negotiation with others or enough scrutiny keeping in view overall success of the project. Directing a movie is a problem-solving exercise. Things do not go according to plan always. It boils down to - how can one make best use of time, space and availability of actors?

"Preparation for the script was difficult. I had the comic book as a guideline. On one hand, we wanted to follow the spirit of the story and individual character’s traits as much as possible. On the other hand, we wanted to show quirkiness, surrealness and contemporary looks to those audience who have not read the comics. Modern audience is intelligent and analytical.

We wanted to cast actors who were good in acting and would somewhat resemble the characters in the comics book. Since we introduced many new characters to the script, we had to also look for new actors to add to the surprise factor. I wanted someone who was agile, physically fit, energetic and heroic for the character of Rappa Roy. At the same time, I wanted to introduce a fresh face for the character. Fortunately, we found all those in Arpan Ghoshal," he said.

Dhiman also spoke about the challenges on working ith a graphic novel. "While it provides a story board readily, the fans of an established comic book characters would like to see probably the same things in a movie. It might be difficult because the two mediums are different. A graphic novel is a different medium and it may not be amenable for writing a script," he concludes.

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