Team Tolly got together to celebrate the birthday of director Srijit Mukherji at Ozora recently. The ‘happy birthdays’ and ‘congratulations’ rang out loud and clear. The trailer of Srijit’s upcoming Puja release Dawshom Awbotaar, starring Prosenjit, Anirban Bhattacharya, Jisshu Sengupta and Jaya Ahsan, was also shown there for the first time, and it was greeted with applause and cheers. “It was one of my best birthdays ever. I was so touched by the turnout. This bonhomie augurs very well for Bangla cinema. It is a very good sign,” says Srijit.

Dawshom Awbotaar is a double prequel of Srijit’s 22shey Srabon and Vinci Da. Srijit had directed Prosenjit in a cop avatar and created history with the cult classic 22shey Srabon, and then had gone on to create the character of a no-nonsense police officer in his film Vinci Da. This time, he has expanded it into a cop universe where the ruthless cop Probir Roy Chowdhury meets Anirban’s Bijoy Poddar, and together they solve a case. “It’s a howdunit and a whydunit but we are following the classic structure. We have added a bit of spice to the presentation. But again, my cops follow the principles of physics. My cop universe has swag but it is still in the realistic zone. People actually chase; they sweat, and pant while chasing. It is mass-y swag but grounded in realism. This is my cop universe,” says Srijit.

(Left top) Dev, (Left bottom) Saswata Chatterjee and Srijit, (middle) Churni and Kaushik Ganguly; (right) Surangana Bandyopadhyay and Riddhi Sen

(Clockwise from left) Madhurima Basak, Rupsha and Rupam, Lagnajita Chakraborty, June, Poulomi Das, Jisshu Sengupta, Anirban Bhattacharya and Anusha Viswanathan