Director Debaloy Bhattacharya has waited a decade to make a film on Swapan Kumar’s works. Now with the accolades pouring in for Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole — starring Abir Chatterjee as Dipak Chatterjee and Paran Bandopadhyay as Swapan Kumar — Debaloy tells us why he has been fascinated by Swapan Kumar and the challenges he faced in making this film.

What is your personal association with Swapan Kumar’s works?

Debaloy Bhattacharya: I am a fan of pulp literature. When I was a child, I wasn’t allowed to read Swapan Kumar. When I grew up, I explored old Bengali literature. Swapan Kumar seemed quite intriguing to me. I felt that decades back someone had dared to write something magical. The thing that struck me is that this person had managed to create a world of his own. Honestly, the stories aren’t great. I am a fan because while reading the stories, they showed the same world differently. Swapan Kumar’s stories don’t have the values by which we judge good literature. That is why he was never considered a good writer. People considered him a writer of cheap, pulp fiction. But they missed the fact that he was able to create a fantasy world of his own in his city, Kolkata. In today’s time, I feel he is very relevant and important.

Our regular detective literature has become too cliched. The way we see the city through them has been done to death and I felt there was a need for a fresh way of thinking and imagination. I wanted to look at Kolkata differently and so the film is a homage to Swapan Kumar.

Have you been a fan of Dipak Chatterjee? What makes him different from Feluda and Byomkesh Bakshi?

Debaloy Bhattacharya: The entire value system is different from Feluda and Byomkesh Bakshi. Dipak Chatterjee’s imagination is wild and fantastical. Fantasy is never considered a serious form. If you look at our lives, fantasy is a very important thing.

⁠You had been planning Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole for a decade...

Debaloy Bhattacharya: I wrote it in 2004 and then the story changed multiple times. We had no clue how people would respond. Hoichoi Studios believed in making something different and stood by it. I wanted to make a surreal film with many layers, subtexts and non-linear narratives, and decided to create this world within our limited resources. We did that.

It took nine years to make my film Dracula Sir. The type of narrative that I like to tell is different, for which I have to wait for an opportunity. At a certain point, I convince my producers who think they can take the risk and they make it. There is a lot of money involved and most of the time I don’t know whether the money will come back or not. Hoichoi Studios was happy with the response. I never hoped for such positive reviews and responses. You feel really good when people understand your craft. I always knew that the audience was intelligent.

Filmmaker Debaloy Bhattacharya.

⁠What made you cast Abir Chatterjee as Dipak Chatterjee and Paran Bandyopadhyay as Shri Swapan Kumar?

Debaloy Bhattacharya: Somebody said casting Abir was a master stroke. It is because Abir is carrying the baggage of all the literary detective characters. If you watch the film, it is evident how pissed he is with the baggage he is carrying. That is what Dipak Chatterjee also wanted to say in the novel. That is how Abir connected with it. Abir said that he is bored with all the usual detectives who solve the cases like an intelligent person and the case is either a murder mystery or a treasure hunt.

Everybody is saying this is Abir’s best performance.

Paranda is a legend. He enjoyed working on the film a lot. Having him in the film was a blessing. He was always in my mind as Swapan Kumar. At the beginning of the film, we have a picture of Swapan Kumar getting morphed into Paranda and they look so similar.

⁠Satire and pulp fiction are quite unusual genres in Indian cinema. How challenging was it to make the film in this genre?

Debaloy Bhattacharya: It was quite challenging. The first challenge was to convince the actors and the team that I was making a film in this genre. If you read the script, you will not understand the whole setup. It is not linear; it’s like bits and pieces of everything. On paper, it’s very confusing apparently. It was only on the screen that they realised what it was. A serious action scene with emotion and so much humour is a very difficult thing to handle. I didn’t know whether it would come out well. It is the most difficult film I have made so far.

Shri Swapankumarer ⁠Badami Hyenar Kobole has a graphic novel vibe and a unique style for its use of colours.

Debaloy Bhattacharya: I wanted to create my world just as Swapan Kumar wanted to create his. A Kolkata that people have not seen. A Kolkata that is exciting, interesting, colourful, where in every nook and corner there’s an adventure happening. It turned out that way. I wanted a lot of energy. I like colours. I come from a background of painting. When I used to draw, it used to be a grand narrative. One of my teachers who was very fond of me would say that my films are an extension of my paintings, images and thoughts. All my films are different from each other in their visual treatment.

⁠In your recent Prime Video series PI Meena, you directed Tanya Maniktala. How was the experience?

Debaloy Bhattacharya: Tanya is a fantastic human being. It was like a cakewalk with her. It could have been a very good experience but Covid hit us and made our life quite difficult. We had to shoot in a terrible situation. We had to compromise a lot on the shoot because of the pandemic, but the team and the actors were great.

⁠Having been a painter, what made you choose cinema as your primary medium of expression?

Debaloy Bhattacharya: I realised that painting is a beautiful thing as a personal medium. But I wanted to go out and connect with the masses. I don’t make films for festivals. I make films that are different, but for the masses. It doesn’t always have to be commercial, and it also doesn’t have to appease the festival audience. I don’t want to go abroad and collect awards. I want people to watch my films. That is what pushed me from painting to making films. Films have been my passion right from my school days. To take it up as a profession was a challenge.

⁠What is next for you?

Debaloy Bhattacharya: I am working on a quirky series for Hoichoi. I don’t have any plans in Bombay. I love working in my mother tongue. I have to give a lot of time to a Hindi project, which I don’t like. It took me more than a year to finish Badami Hyenar Kobole but if I go to Bombay and start a project, I will get detached from here.