Aritra Mukherjee and Zinia Sen open up about making Bhanupriya Bhooter Hotel
As human and ghostly worlds come together on screen today with the release of Bhanupriya Bhooter Hotel, we catch up with director Aritra Mukherjee and writer Zinia Sen about their new genre of work. Helmed by Mimi Chakraborty, Soham Majumdar, Swastika Dutta, and Bonny Sengupta, this horror-romance-comedy is expected to blow one’s mind away.
Excerpts
How did the idea of Bhanupriya Bhooter Hotel come about?
Zinia: Last year, we went to Kalimpong and stayed in a beautiful, archaic hotel. Being adventurous, I used to walk around the property. Some of the rooms were always locked. It used to give a very eerie feeling in the evenings. It made me question if I was truly alone. On one such evenings, I floated the idea of doing a horror comedy to Nandita (Roy) and Shiboprosad (Mukherjee). They encouraged me to write the story. Nandita even suggested a few characters she could visualise. That was how Bhanupriya Bhooter Hotel started taking shape. After returning from the vacation, I shared this with Aritra. He took a long pause because it’s a new and not an easy genre to handle. We have not seen ghosts. We don’t know how they behave or what they do. It was difficult for him also. But he liked the idea and I went on to write the story.
Aritra: When Zinia came and told me about this, I was very excited. Having assisted or directed about 24 movies so far, I am familiar with this genre but never worked around it. So, I was keen on it. When we make movies, we have a reference point to sketch a character. Here, we didn’t have any and had to create a world based on our own perceptions. But the tension disappeared and we had a lot of fun as we progressed.
Your past movies have social messages. Can we expect the same here?
Zinia: Yes. It touches upon some vital issues of our times. We have been doing films around social issues and this film is not a digression. It is actually a social commentary. But I want people to see it for themselves rather than disclosing much.
Aritra: Four major issues are definitely addressed in the film that are pressing concerns globally today.
With exposure to varied content, do you think predictability by the audience is a challenge for contemporary writers and directors?
Zinia: Obviously. There should not be any predictability when you are writing something. If you can predict the writer’s frames, then it’s the writer’s failure. It is a challenge for the writers to ensure that the story does not become predictable. There should be twists and turns. I see myself as a member of the audience when I am writing. After a point, I pause and revisit the story with detachment. Is the story falling flat? Can the surprise elements be guessed? If I find predictability, I immediately change that; if not, I go ahead and seal the story. Also, for this film, Godhuli Sharma has collaborated with me. To train a new person was also a challenge, but we took it up positively.
Having collaborated before, what’s that one habit of the other you wish you had?
If you were locked up in Bhanupriya Bhooter Hotel for a night, who would you want to meet and what would the conversation be around?
Zinia: Professionally, I would love to meet Satyajit Ray. I want to tell him that every Bengali film gets compared to his films and why filmmakers after him still have not been able to deliver something as crucially relevant and meaningful as his films. I want to talk about the challenges that every filmmaker faces when their works are compared to his films. Personally, I would like to meet my journalist mentor.
Aritra: I would want to meet Bhooter Raja and ask him to grant me three things – first, that Bhanupriya Bhooter Hotel is a hit; second, that I can make more films in the future; and third, to take us out of the haunted hotel.
Bhanupriya Bhooter Hotel hits theatres today.
For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels.