It was January 19, 2019. Soumitra Chatterjee’s birthday. And the legendary actor was shooting for Anik Dutta’s film Borunbabur Bondhu. A cake was brought in on the sets, which he went on to cut… but that’s about it. “He likes to keep it low key. In fact, Borunbabu (Soumitra) echoes a similar line in the film… Borunbabu doesn’t like the fanfare associated with it.... And we did not shoot any birthday scenes on that day,” smiles Anik. The Telegraph chats...

Why did you decide to make this film?

I wanted to make an intimate film on interpersonal relationships. When I used to first think of films, I used to think of films like these… where there is an observation of the Bengali middle class and an interpretation. Here it is mostly to do with a middle-class/upper middle-class family structure and its different branches. There are tensions, turbulences, climax and anti-climaxes in the film. In the trailer we see people are expecting someone and he or she is someone special.

The film examines the Bengali middle-class milieu.

In the middle class there is a duplicity… which is linked to a change of values. With the other classes they are more blatant about whatever they do. Here there is a false sense of morality. Of course, the middle-class concept also keeps changing... before the open market economy and after. During our time, an average, middle-class guy would not own a car. But now almost everyone does. So who is upper or who is middle?

There are various parameters now… but in this film, it is by and large restricted to the middle class. There is a reason... because Borunbabu himself belongs to the middle class and he represents a tribe that is becoming extinct… the so-called educated Bengali middle class, who at least believed that they had a principle, a value system, whether right or wrong. This tribe is diminishing very fast. Either they have gone underground or have been marginalised or they are on the edge of the society. Maybe some are disillusioned and they have almost discarded themselves from society, and the people around them don’t bother about them because they feel they are irrelevant.

Soumitra plays Borunbabu. Do you remember the first time you met him?

At a party… after the release of Bhooter Bhabishyat. He said that he really liked the film. That was the first conversation I had with him. I did two ads with him later. For the first ad, a Charulata song was recreated… it was like revisiting the days of watching Charulata. We really enjoyed working for that ad. He was very easy to work with. Later I got to hear many stories from him, about behind-the-scene moments. It felt like I was getting transported to that world.

How did you come up with the look for Borunbabu…

I needed a stern face… and for that I gave him the reference of Saat Pake Bandha. Borunbabu has this intellectual arrogance. As an actor, his enthusiasm is amazing. He had said in other interviews that he was fascinated by the script of Borunbabur Bondhu. Since he arrived on the sets in a positive frame of mind, that really helped.

Know Borunbabur Bondhu

Borunbabu, an octogenarian, can’t quite come to terms with the world around him. As a result, he has isolated himself from the society and even from most of his family members. His ailing wife is bedridden. Apart from her, his childhood friend Sukumar, who visits him almost daily and his grandson Nemo are the only people he can relate to. The other members of his family hardly interact with him unless absolutely necessary, because of his irritable nature and his non-compromising attitude and somewhat obstinate ways. He has been a principled man all his life but is not perceived as someone who has been ‘successful’ in the accepted sense of the term. He is therefore not seen as someone ‘important’ by his relatives and acquaintances. Suddenly something happens which changes all this. Borunbabu overnight becomes important to all those who had ignored him all these days.

— Anik Dutta