Dhiman Barman’s Rappa Roy selected for Dadasaheb Phalke Film Festival

With the rise of an audience for independent movies and space for them in Film Festivals, Bengali cinema can no longer be categorised as regional, in the true sense of the term. From winning National Awards to starring cross-border actors and going pan- Indian or even alluring the Indian Diaspora outside, the face of cinema has evolved quite a bit. And with an independent cinema boom, new thoughts, faces and team come to the forefront and get recognised on prestigious platforms. In recent times, debut director Dhiman Barman’s Rappa Roy Full Stop Dot Com was selected for screening at the Dadasaheb Phalke Film Festival 2026. The film is scheduled to be screened on April 30.

What is Rappa Roy Full Stop Dot Com all about?

Dhiman, a first time director, is visibly elated with the selection. He mentions, “As a debutant director, I am thrilled that the film has been selected for screening at the Dadasaheb Phalke Film Festival 2026. In addition, it will be an opportunity for Delhi audience to watch the film since we didn’t get to release in there.”

Following the narrative of an aspiring journalist, the movie moves ahead with the protagonist and his aide, who is also a film director, trying to uncover the kidnapping of a popular actress. It explores Calcutta through fresh eyes, intellect and of course comic timing. Rappa Roy Full Stop Dot Com is helmed by several well-known actors from the Bengali film industry. The cast includes Arpan Ghoshal, Debashis Roy, Shantilal Mukherjee, Rajatava Dutta, Saurav Das, Alivia Sarkar, Sujan Neel Mukherjee, Late Rahul Arunoday Banerjee, Debasish Mondal, Prantik Banerjee, Chandrayee Ghosh and Sabyasachi Chowdhury.

Dhiman also gives a quick anecdote to his film-making process and mentions, “Directing a movie is a problem-solving exercise. Things do not always go according to plan. It boils down to how one can make best use of time, space and availability of actors. I had the comic book by Sujog Bandhopadhyay as my guideline. On one hand, we wanted to follow the spirit of the story and individual character’s traits as much as possible while on the other, we wanted to show quirkiness, surrealness and contemporary looks to those audiences who have not read the comic.”

Keeping in mind that the modern audience is intelligent and analytical, Dhiman proceeded with the comic as his storyboard and a quirky freshness in his approach that made the movie stand out and ultimately get selected for a screening.

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