LESSON 1: PUNCTUALITY

It’s no secret how Victor Banerjee came on board Raktabeej. I had texted him a day before Holi and there was no response. On Holi, he called me and just when I was about to introduce myself, he said he wouldn’t have called back if he was not familiar with Didi (Nandita Roy) and my work as directors. And like it’s said, great men think alike, I also feel they are alike in some way or the other. I’ve heard that Mr Amitabh Bachchan is known to arrive on time for every shoot of his and here, we had Victorda turning up 10 minutes before his call time, day after day. For the first day of shoot at Belgachhia Rajbari, his call time was 2pm, but sending shockwaves to my entire directorial team, he turned up at 1.40pm. So, my first learning was that everything had to start bang on time! In this film, he plays the role of the President and even though, being a Bengali, the only example we have before us is that of the late Pranab Mukherjee, this film is not about him. Victorda’s character, however, draws inspiration from our beloved former President.

LESSON 2: MASTERCLASS IN ACTING

The only one person who could have played sister to Victorda in this film was Anasua Majumdar. Her role is more challenging than anyone else’s, as the character she plays is wheelchair-bound. Now, that’s not an easy thing to do. I have one such person in my home and I know exactly how someone has to be moved from and to the wheelchair. On top of that, Anasuadi plays elder sister of Victorda and it’s far difficult to imbibe the body language of an older woman than one thinks. But Anasuadi, an actor per excellence, would not only come prepared with all her lines but her body language was equally impeccable.

Mimi Chakraborty

LESSON 3: ALL FOR ACTION

The Bengali film industry does not churn out action films regularly. When we started developing the characters, with help from top cop Kalyan Mukhopadhyay, we knew Abir Chatterjee and Mimi Chakraborty would fit the roles of police officers. They are good actors and also looked the part. But I had no clue they could pull off action like the way they have! The way he’d sit, walk and even talk over the phone, I was surprised to see Abir in this brand-new role of IPS officer Pankaj Sinha, who comes from Delhi to investigate into a case. He even did 12 hours of non-stop action, without letting his energy drop even for a second. At 1.30am, we were shooting at Koley Market and he had to jump off the verandah of a house onto a tin roof. He did it in the same effortless manner every time there was a retake for some other reason. Mimi, known to be aggressive, rode a bullet, jumped off a high barricade, pulled the trigger (for reel) as Burdwan SP Sanjukta Mitra, surprising the whole team with her skills.

LESSON 4: WHEN ACTORS CONTRIBUTE

I have learnt from each and every actor in our team, be it Kanchan Mallick, Ambarish Bhattacharya, Debasish Mondal, Satyam Bhattacharya, Devlina Kumar, Uma Banerjee, Paromeeta Mukherjee, Ankita Majhi, Gulshanara Khatun or the others whose names will remain etched in my heart forever. They not only contributed a great deal to their own characters, but the film in general. Satyam, I remember, would always give us a choice of how he could go about one scene. In one such crucial scene, he just added the words, “Ek minute” and that enhanced it so much. Thinking actors can bring the wave of change and I am confirmed about this after this film.

LESSON 5: IT’S A TEAM GAME

These days, considering the amount of work in the OTT space or otherwise, it’s rare to get a cinematographer, who would give you enough time for pre-production. We got lucky with Pratip Mukherjee. I can safely say he has given his all to this film. Despite the crunch in time, he’d keep waiting for the best shot and never take it easy till he was satisfied. About being happy? Well, I have never seen him smile during the shoot! The way Zinia (Sen) and Sarbaridi (Ghoshal) wrote and re-wrote the script till we were all set and Aritra (Mukherjee), who has three films to his credit, came forward to assist us, I don’t think it was possible to pull off such a grand venture without them.

LESSON 6: NEVER SAY NEVER

When we began shooting in March, it was not just hot, there would often be storms and sudden rainfall. I remember it was above 40-degree Celsius in Bolpur when Victorda had to walk barefoot and how he readily agreed to do so for a kilometre. Now that was very inspiring. To see him walk in that heat, everyone went all out to give their best as well. That night, a watch tower, which was an important element of the shoot, fell in a sudden storm. At 2.30am, we had an emergency meeting with the production manager, Prasun Saha, and our directorial team. We didn’t know if we could shoot the following day, but by the time we started shooting, it was built all over again.

LESSON 7: AN EXERCISE IN SPIRITUALITY

This shoot was also a spiritual journey for me. When we were shooting in Panchla in a house with an open courtyard, it would often rain. But I don’t remember waiting for a scene, as it would stop right before the shot. Then, we went to Delhi on July 9 to shoot the Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate. It was pouring that day and we did not know if we could even step out. But miraculously we could take all the shots that we wanted despite the incessant showers. I felt as if the God of Cinema was protecting us and I will remain forever thankful for the blessings.

LESSON 8: MY BIG FAILURE

Going back to action a little, we had fight master Manohar Verma directing the realistic action sequences in Raktabeej. He is known for films like Madras Cafe, Mardaani, Airlift, Sardar Udham and many others. With his expertise, he made Abir jump onto a moving roller coaster, Debasish fight without a body double, Mimi deliver her best in chase sequences and the list goes on. But it got tough when he had to choreograph some action with goats! He held several meetings with us on this. “Goat aur bachha kahin bhi bhag sakta hai,” he said. With kids, it was not so much of a problem as Didi and I have worked with them in many films. But goats! There’s a scene that involves 700 goats and it was important to track the direction in which they would run for placing the camera. With Verma, our team and help from the divine, we did manage to shoot the sequence, but I still don’t know the direction in which goats run when they need to!