A host of small, intimate moments, from first puff to first crush, made Chandrabindoo singer Anindya Chattopadhyay’s debut directorial venture Open Tee Bioscope a realistic, witty, laugh riot. Rave reviews and houseful shows signalled the success of Open Tee Bioscope, which was released on January 16, 2015. Recently the film’s star producer Shoojit Sircar and director Anindya Chattopadhyay got together to talk about 10 years of the coming-of-age film. A t2 chat.

What are your thoughts on the 10th anniversary of the film?

Shoojit: It is beautiful that a film can bring together so many people. The kids’ bond is so special and one can see that in the film. The good thing is that they are still friends and they cherish that friendship. It is a great life lesson.
Anindya: One of the biggest successes of the film was the bond that the kids shared. They celebrate January 16 every year in their own way. I message Shoojitda every year on this day.

How do you look back at the film now?

Shoojit: I had made lots of ads in north Calcutta but I loved the way Anindya explored north Calcutta in this film. It was so lived-in, so intimate. Even today, memories of the shoot and the characters come rushing back. It was the perfect coming-of-age story. I have not grown up in Bhagbazar but the ghat there is a fave place of mine. I have spent a lot of time there jamming on scripts.
Anindya: I would work on the script in Shoojitda’s Salt Lake home... Shoojitda came up with many ideas for the film. The part where a grown-up Phoara (played by Ritwick Chakraborty) returns to his home was Shoojitda’s idea. In fact, we shot that portion probably two-three months before the release of the film. Shoojitda supported me a lot. I am indebted to him. During the shoot, we faced a number of problems but Shoojitda was there to sort it out.

Now that Open Tee Bioscope has turned 10, can we expect a sequel?

Shoojit:Open Tee Bioscope depicted a chapter in the lives of those teenagers. But now all of them have grown up. I feel the film naturally gives way to a sequel... I think we can revisit the characters and find out what they are doing now. There can be a sequel. You would want to know how they are placed in their lives now. I still see Riddhi (Sen), Rwitobroto (Mukherjee) or Surangana (Bandopadhyay) as the teenagers from Open Tee Bioscope only.
Anindya: Everyone started crying on the day we finished our shoot. I will never forget those days. We are emotionally connected with the film.

Anindya, the film is partly autobiographical. If you do a sequel, will you now draw on parts of your life for that film?

Anindya:(Laughs) A neighbourhood comes alive because of one’s friends. That’s how a para becomes so special for you. We still have our home in north Calcutta but my friends have gone away.
Shoojit: I had gone home-hunting in north Calcutta once. I really wanted to stay there. But I couldn’t find the right house.
Anindya: Shoojitda knows all the lanes and bylanes of north Calcutta. He knows where to have the best kachoris. When I was growing up I would see a group of teenagers moving from door to door, ringing the doorbells and then running away. Or someone would call someone else Chucho, leaving him totally unglued for the rest of the day!

A person who was hard of hearing would get his daily dose of news from someone who would shout out every line from a newspaper. The para is a character in the film and a kind of odbhut moja happens in that para.

Open Tee Bioscope opens with Phoara returning to his city. We hear that Shoojitda comes to Calcutta almost twice a month.

Shoojit: Yes, and every time I imagine that I am Phoara returning to his city. I feel so free here.

Shoojitda, would you like to produce more Bengali films?

Shoojit: Yes, I would love to. I Want to Talk is actually a Bengali film! Only the language is Hindi.
Anindya: We are all looking forward to Shoojitda actually directing a Bengali film, in the Bengali language.
Shoojit: When Open Tee Bioscope was released 10 years ago, the distribution pattern was quite confusing. It is not a Calcutta-centric film. I feel people will flock to the theatres to watch Open Tee... if you, say, release it in Siliguri. I hear things have changed now. Now, there are more halls. Bohurupi did great box-office numbers across Bengal, and it resonated with the people.

Anindya, what was your pitch to Shoojitda? Why did he decide to produce it?

Anindya: He connected with the images of para football and north Calcutta. Also, the film had multiple layers. And the film doesn’t focus on only one character. It tells the stories of many people.

How long did it take you to shoot Open Tee Bioscope?

Anindya: It took us 31 days. I was directing a film for the first time. We would wrap the shoot every day by 8pm and then I would get time to prepare for the next day. I had moved to south Calcutta by then but I was staying in my north Calcutta home during that time.
Shoojit: We had a tight schedule.
Anindya: The film was shot across so many locations with so many actors.

Shoojitda, how did you get the confidence to trust a first-time director with Open Tee Bioscope?

Shoojit: Anindya had shown a desire to direct a film and we were very clear about that. I was eager to produce my second Bengali film after Aparajita Tumi and Anindya was ready to direct Open Tee Bioscope. I know what is required to do a film, so I was the facilitator and I wanted Anindya to comfortably direct it.

Anindya was extremely passionate about the story... and the purity of the story and his innocence came through. I knew that Anindya’s idea was very pure. We worked on the script. The film is made up of moments that are stitched together. Anindya had that conviction and I went with my gut feeling. I knew that he could pull it off. Open Tee Bioscope is a cinematic achievement.

The attention span of audiences has gone down. This film didn’t have lots of twists and turns nor did it rely on a gripping plot. Would you like to produce a film like this, which is made up of moments, in 2025?

Shoojit: Of course. The demand for a good story that is told lucidly is still there. People still love to watch character-driven films.

Anindya, why did you turn to direction?

Anindya: I had a desire to direct a film for a long time. I worked as an in-house director for a channel, and then I assisted Rituparno Ghosh in Titli. I wanted to see and learn. But then it’s different when you direct your own film.

Do you remember the first day of shoot?

Shoojit: We started with a test shoot to figure out things.
Anindya: We reached a Puja pandal to shoot snippets of Puja scenes with our new DoP on Ashtami. But I did not know that it would take so long to do the make-up of all the actors. I wanted to start around 8pm but it took four hours to get all of them make-up ready. Around midnight, I saw people leaving the pandal. They were not junior artistes. So we shot through the night. Later, my actual first shot was of Riddhi riding a bicycle. Since the cycle was wobbling, we had to do it seven to eight times to get it right.