Soumitra Chatterjee’s‘ Borunbabur Bondhu’ to release this January
Legendary actor of Bangla cinema, Soumitra Chatterjee will be seen as a person torn between traditional and modern values in Anik Dutta’s upcoming Bengali film, Borunbabur Bondhu. Based on Ramapada Chowdhury’s story Chhad, the film also stars Arpita Chatterjee, Ritwick Chakraborty, Madhabi Mukherjee, Paran Bandyopadhyay, Sreelekha Mitra, Kaushik Sen and Bidipta Chakraborty, among others.
Soumitra, winner of the Dada Saheb Phalke award, India’s highest recognition for contribution to cinema, says he turned down several acting offers in Hindi films over the years. “I got several offers from well-known Hindi filmmakers but turned them down. Somehow, I did not like the atmosphere in Mumbai,” Chatterjee said when asked why he did not foray into Bollywood. “Once they realised I wasn’t interested, they stopped offering me roles.”
The 84-year-old actor also said, he was fortunate that he was offered interesting roles in the last six decades. Chatterjee said he considers theatre personality Sisir Bhaduri as his mentor and Satyajit Ray, who gave him his break in Apur Sansar in 1959, as the guide. “I miss working with Manikda (Ray), Tapan Sinha and Ajoy Kar. Those were different times. I miss the adda at Ray’s residence,” he says.
The veteran actor, however, clarified that he enjoyed working with the new breed of directors as well, including Anik Dutta, Atanu Ghosh and Suman Ghosh. “If I have any creative suggestion, the directors definitely consider that. We all wish to make a good film at the end of the day,” he adds. The film was recently screened at the 25th Kolkata International Film Festival and is set to release in January, 2020.