Bollywood indie film director Dibaker Banerjee is well aware that a bankable Indian star who enjoys a rockstar status may shy away from working with him. He’s demanding and doesn’t care for nursing actors’ fragile egos. He wants his leading actor to think, contribute ideas on how to play the character and be willingly consumed by the creative madness of it all.
Fortunately, he found his match in rising star Sushant Singh Rajput, who plays the title role in Detective Byomkesh Bakshi!, out in the UAE this Thursday.
“I didn’t have a brief for him… We discovered detective Byomkesh together,” said Banerjee in an interview with tabloid!.
“Sushant lost 10-12kg for the role, he went through an orientation programme on how to be a Bengali. He walked the streets of Kolkota anonymously and spent time with a Bengali family. He observed how the men wore their dhotis and studied how they ate their fish and rice. He read many books and had many workshops. So he would rehearse in the day and make notes about his character in the night,” said Banerjee. Such painstaking preparations are mostly unheard of in Bollywood, where many actors take pride in being spontaneous.
Produced by Yash Raj Films and Dibaker Banerjee Productions, Detective Byomkesh Bakshi! is a whodunit based on the literary figure created by Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandhyopadhyay. They have purchased the rights of all the existing 31 novels, and the film, which is set in the 1940s war-torn Kolkota, follows the first adventure of Byomkesh, who is fresh out of college, and unwittingly takes on an evil genius who is out to destroy the world.
“Looking Bengali was the most fundamental and easiest thing for an actor to do. The tough part was to nail Byomkesh’s body language and understand how an ordinary guy who’s placed in a complex situation would react. It is important to change your pattern of thinking. It was complicated,” said Rajput. The Patna-born actor, who made his debut in the universally-liked Kai Po Che! in 2013 and is now working with Oscar-nominated director Shekhar Kapoor in the futuristic water-wars saga Paani, describes his role as his career’s “finest performance”. He was last seen in the blockbuster PK, as the smitten Pakistani exchange student in Europe.
“Detective Byomkesh Bakshi! has changed my perspective towards how I approach my art. I have never been told to approach a character like this before. Dibaker was very organic in his thought process. He wanted me to think,” said Rajput. Both believe that India can now cease looking to the West for an intriguing sleuth.
“Byomkesh was imagined, conceived and written years ago in India. So we don’t need to look at Sherlock Holmes when we have our own detective in India. But the main challenge was when you take a detective figure from a book and transplant it in a film. Reading a detective book is a different experience when compared to watching one. The tough part was to change that literary experience to a cinematic experience. I want the people to enjoy the thrill that the detective is going through. I want the viewer to enjoy that chase between the criminal and the detective,” said Banerjee. The director, who is the creator of delightful comedies such as Khosla Ka Ghosla and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, has just a couple of requests for viewers: don’t text or tweet while watching the film.
“This is one film where you need to be alert at all times. Be distracted and you miss a vital clue to the whole puzzle. Also, watch it with your detective brains switched on because every shot, every scene is a clue,” said Banerjee. Detective Byomkesh Bakshi! is his labour of love.
“The legwork for Detective Byomkesh was huge. It took around two years to construct that 1940s era. We wanted to construct that period through sets, costumes and sounds. The sounds in 1943 were different from the sounds of 2015. It was a cycle that involved costume detailing and massive pre-production work. But we didn’t throw money at the problems, we threw planning at it,” said Banerjee.
At the time of our interview, the director had just wrapped up the sound mixing for the film. It was nearing midnight and he was still switched on.
For Rajput, it was a combination of factors that led him to accept the part on Detective Byomkesh Bakshi!. Apart from being hooked onto Indian detective serials such as Tehkikaat, Karam Chand and Rajit Kapoor’s Private Eye since childhood, Rajput is convinced that there’s a hole when it comes to sleuths in India.
“Byomkesh cuts a stylish figure… And I don’t say ‘yes’ to a film based on whether it’s commercially viable or not. Or what is expected of me. I react to the script and if it’s fun I jump on board irrespective of the genre. I found this film very fascinating. Initially, there were many things I did not understand about the film, but what made me say ‘yes’ is that Dibaker was very sure about it,” said Rajput, who won hearts in his role as a commitment-phobic guy in the comedy Shuddh Desi Romance.
So the big question remains whether Rajput looks Bengali enough for the role?
“Agreed, it’s easier to present a Sardar in a Hindi film to Indians because we see more of them in North India… But I am actually convinced that every Indian looks more or less alike. In my films, Abhay Deol, a Punjabi, has acted as a Tamil government official and in Khosla Ka Ghosla, Boman Irani who’s a Parsi has acted as a Punjabi. If a Parsi can become a Khurrana and a Deol can become a Krishnan, then I am sure Sushant will pull this off.”
According to Rajput, their battle is half won if they can generate the ‘what’s next’ thought in a viewer.
“We want the viewers to be hooked to our story from the start. And if we sustain that curiosity, we have won the battle.”
Don’t miss it!
Detective Byomkesh Bakshi! releases in the UAE on Thursday.
