Koushik Sen and Riddhi Sen

Riddhi, who admires a lot of the characters his father has played in films and on stage alike, particularly wishes to play the character of Gangadhar portrayed by Koushik Sen in Anjan Dutt’s film Byomkesh Phire Elo. “The way my father played the character of the son-in-law of the house in this film is really interesting. He ends up losing all his money at the end! Every aspect of the character is very different compared to the person my father is in real life. So, that would be quite interesting to explore. Also, his character of a Leftist leader basking in his glory in the film Open Tee Bioscope seems very interesting to me. However, I must mention that there is another character that I would love to play. The character Bimal Nandi played by my father in the play Tiktiki, which is an adaptation of Anthony Shaffer’s play Sleuth. During those days, it was a cult play, and the wonderful way in which both Soumitra jethu (Chatterjee) and Baba did their roles is something that I would like to experience myself,” says Riddhi.

For father Koushik, there are two characters played by Riddhi that stood out. He says, “I would love to do Riddhi’s character from the film Open Tee Bioscope simply because of the chance of getting to play a lot of football in the film! I must admit that I am a better player than him and that is because he didn’t have that many opportunities to play as I did. His character was required to play a lot, and I feel I would have enjoyed doing that role very much! The other character that I would love to play is from the film Children of War. Though the film has not been watched widely, I genuinely feel that Riddhi despite being very young at that time delivered a fantastic performance. Playing a refugee and an orphaned child, the way his character Rafiq attained maturity through various circumstances intrigued me very much.”

Rwitobroto Mukherjee Sourced by the Telegraph

Shantilal Mukherjee and Rwitobroto Mukherjee

Rwitobroto, who started acting at a very young age, says, “There is one iconic character that I would love to play. His portrayal of Raja Sengupta in Roktokorobi directed by Amitabha Bhattacharya is one of his best. The film is a contemporary adaptation of Tagore’s play. The way his character was interpreted as a politician according to the present times, the duality and the politics of the character made it appear very interesting to me. The politician trying to break free from the artiste that he was, the dark elements of the character and the way the social and political message was conveyed with minimum dialogues were outstanding. Also, his portrayal of Swami Vivekananda in the play Juganayak is something I admire. The kind of research he did and his preparation process to play it on stage particularly draws me to the character.”

Shantilal feels great admiration for the role played by Rwitobroto in Anindya Chattopadhyay’s film Open Tee Bioscope. “It would be really interesting to play his role as Kochua. The kind of childhood that was shown in the film witnessed by those boys is the kind of childhood that I actually got to live. From climbing trees and growing up in those places, the kind of activities that the boys were engaged in, all of it are really relatable. So, given a chance it would be lovely to do a character like that, which would evoke nostalgia and take me back to my childhood days, allowing me to relive all of it all over again,” says Shantilal Mukherjee.

Satarupa Sanyal (centre), with her daughters Chitrangada Satarupa (left) and Ritabhari Chakraborty (right) Sourced by the Telegraph

Satarupa Sanyal, Chitrangada Satarupa and Ritabhari Chakraborty

For Ritabhari, Aparichita is her favourite. “My mother has mostly directed a lot of films. However, from her initial days as an actress, Aparichita is my favourite. It was directed by my father, Utpalendu Chakraborty. I was a kid when I first saw it. But it is a character that I love. There are various layers to the character which attracted me. She questions the role of a woman and raises her voice, and that is what drew me to this role. Also, I must mention that the character of Anu played by Indrani Halder in the film Anu, directed by my mother, has also moved me a lot. Though not played by my mother, it is one character that I would love to explore as an actress,” says Ritabhari.

“Aparichita is based on Tagore’s short story, and she acted in it with Anupam Kher, Abhishek Chatterjee and others. I found it to be a very powerful story and her character was also very strong. The image of my mother standing in front of the train compartment’s door is an image that is stuck in my mind ever since. She did that film at a very early age. If I ever think of her performing as an actor, the images from that film come to my mind,” said Chitrangada.

Mother Satarupa finds Ritabhari’s short films to be more appealing than her big-screen commercial movies. However, she admires her daughter’s role in the recently released film Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti. “If I would be a little younger I would definitely wish to play Shabari’s character. Her simplicity is very attractive to me. She is trying to break societal taboos, yet her dialogue delivery is soft and her body language is subtle, which I found to be very challenging. Ritabhari delivered a very good performance in this particular role. If it would be done any differently, then the character would come out as a woman-hero, but here her heroic traits have been shown in a very subtle manner. Her look in the film, the kind of saris she wore, I could relate to that aspect of her character also very much,” says Satarupa.

For Chitrangada, mom Satarupa picks the film Tikli and Laxmi Bomb, where she portrayed the character of Tikli. “It is a role I admire the most. There is a lot to do in that role and Chitrangada depicted it also very beautifully. If I had a chance, I would definitely want to do that role of hers,” says the filmmaker.

Gaurav Chakrabarty with Sabyasachi Chakrabarty Sourced by the Telegraph

Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Gaurav Chakrabarty and Arjun Chakrabarty

For Gaurav, it is really tough to pick one character from his father’s huge body of work. “Feluda’s character is obviously iconic. What also stood out for me was the character Rudra Sen played by my father in Anjan Dutt’s TV series Rudra Sener Diary. The kind of adventures he engages in is very different and very interesting. I was introduced to this series at a very impressionable age and that made me fall in love with that character. Anjan Dutt himself says that the character is inspired by Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe,” says Gaurav.

Arjun feels that Feluda is his father’s “most famous role and it is every Bengali’s dream to play him”. But leaving aside the obvious, he would like to see himself in two other roles played by his father. “My outlook towards things has always been unconventional to the point of being weird. I would choose his character Tom from Anjan Dutt’s Bow Barracks Forever. Tom is definitely not an ideal man, being an alcoholic. Though I know that it is shocking that I am choosing this character but there is something about negative characters that appeal to me. We as actors enjoy ‘pretending’ to be someone in front of the camera that we are not in real life, in fact, someone quite opposite to who we are as people. I am also a big fan of his portrayal of the detective Rudra Sen. Baba has always had a terrific screen presence coupled with the no-nonsense body language and speech pattern — this is something I wish to see in myself too,” says Arjun.

For father Sabyasachi, Gaurav’s character Rabi Kiran Chowdhury in the TV series Adwitiya and Arjun’s character Satyakam Das in the movie Byomkesh Gowtro are his favourites. “Positive characters are very straight-line characters. There is not much scope to do it differently. But negative characters have no such standard definition. So, there is a chance for interpreting and exploring such characters in various ways. Though my career started with a positive character, these two characters from my sons’ films have influenced me because these are negative characters,” says the veteran actor.