Send me mutton curry if and only if it’s red, hot and delish,” grinned Victor Banerjee when asked what he would like to eat on a day rain clouds curiously took over half the sky at Panchla at the onset of summer. No one had expected it to rain that day like no one expected Victor-da to ask for a food item! Nandita-di (Roy), who is always bickering with Shibu (Shiboprosad Mukherjee) over what to eat at lunch, as she loves her curry over the latter’s jhol, did send some red mutton with big potatoes floating in the gravy across to Victor-da, but no one knows if he tasted any of it.The unit of Raktabeej is abuzz that there was a time when Victor-da would enjoy his black coffee and only that at the shoot, but now all that everyone is left to witness are stories. Stories of a great who worked with the likes of Roman Polanski, James Ivory, Sir David Lean, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal and carved a niche for himself by acing every genre, every role.
I have a story to share at the start. Nandita-di was down with fever and we were at her place for an urgent meeting on Raktabeej. Victor-da’s name had cropped up to play the central character and we were not certain if he would agree to do this film. Shibu texted Victor-da but there was no reply. The next day was Holi and we were busy with the puja at home when Victor-da called back. Shibu graciously introduced himself as a film-maker and asked if the veteran actor had heard about Nandita-di and him. Victor-da said he wouldn’t have called back had he not heard about them!
One narration and a look test later, we were at the Belgachhia Rajbari to shoot a small part of the film on the first day. Victor-da’s manager called up Aritra Mukherjee, who is the chief assistant director of the film, thrice over to confirm the time. We had heard he was punctual but there he was, dot at 1.40 pm, his call time for the day! Since then, it has been all about the bonding between him and the team. And this real-life camaraderie with his co-actors is reflecting on screen. Needless to say, his every scene with Anasua-di (Banerjee) or Abir (Chatterjee) is looking straight out of life.
In between the gruelling shoot, Victor-da finds himself just about enough time to have some fun with everyone around him, be it the assistant directors or the actors or the director duo. He told Shibu to increase his intake of green chillies in his evening staple, muri. In a conversation, he said he travels to the Northeast once every year to get his stock of ghost pepper or bhoot jolokia. Only the other day, he asked when Ganesh-da had learnt to cook! Ganesh Ghosh is from the production team and no shoot of Nandita-di and Shibu is complete without him rustling up some ‘boutique home food’ for them. Ganesh-da’s father used to run a tea stall outside the NT1 studios and he made the son make the most of his idle hours by acting in a film. And whose film did Ganesh-da land a role in? It was Pratignya starring Victor-da in the lead! In Ganesh-da’s words Victor Banerjee is as different from the rest of his contemporaries as chalk and cheese. “It feels as if he is a foreigner who made the city his own,” Ganesh-da recalled talking about his old times with Victor-da.
(L-R) Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy, Victor
Zinia Sen
Nandita-di was telling me the other day how Victor-da said it would rain and the temperature would come down to 13 degrees! It did rain but that temperature? Oh, it was the weather forecast of Mussoorie, where Victor-da has his home, and his heart too. A mention of the quaint hill station fills him up with joie de vivre. And his calm demeanour must have got something to do with the hills.
Reason why team Raktabeej is a worried lot. We are shooting in Bolpur where the mercury is soaring and the action sequences have Victor-da right at the centre! But everyone seems to be caring a lot for each other and that’s a bonus of working with Nandita-di and Shibu. Not only is it a quiet and well-behaved team, we have everyone rising up to the occasion. Abir Chatterjee, professional to the core and one of the most technically sound actors of our time, hurriedly extended his umbrella to Victor-da when it started drizzling on Sunday. There’s way more to him than just an actor on a set. Anasua-di too is a friend to all, while Mimi Chakraborty always floors with her diligence and Kanchan Mallick has an elephant’s memory when it comes to remembering lines.
And there’s so much to learn from the younger lot of actors, the cinematographer, the focus puller, the other technicians, the costume people, the spot boys, the junior actors who are standing in the heat for hours, so that a dream is built, brick by brick. Raktabeej is currently being filmed on a familiar territory called Bolpur, where Nandita-di and Shibu have returned for their fifth film after Ramdhanu, Belaseshe, Posto and Belashuru and it’s my third as a screenplay writer in the Bard’s nest (after Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti and Fatafati), but this time, it’s unfamiliar territory for all of us. An action thriller on a big canvas, we are running against time to finish this mammoth Puja film in 23 days straight and right now, we are only halfway through the dream.
We are ready to brave a lot of sun and rain to reach where we wish to. And even before we set out to entertain people, we want to entertain ourselves while making this film. So, there’s as much fun as there’s work. My good friend Aritra wisecracked on my 31st draft of Raktabeej, penned along with dialogue writer Sarbari Ghoshal. Considering the innumerable A-B-Cs in between, he said by the time we finish this film, the number of drafts would surpass my age. I don’t doubt it. Only nice guys finish first!
