With three big screen releases and an OTT series that became the talk of the town in 2024, filmmaker Srijit Mukherji is a busy man. On his 47th birthday, The Telegraph Online caught up with Srijit for a chat on all the brickbats and praise coming his way for Padatik and Shekhar Home.

Shekhar Home dropped on JioCinema last month to a positive response but there has been some criticism too. For example, some people say the initial episodes were too feeble to latch on to and the big bang pursual of Moriarty came too late.

Srijit Mukherji: No, I don’t think so. I feel the initial episodes were very effective in terms of world building. It’s a very quirky world of Shekhar Home and required establishing characters like Janardan and the entire world of Lonpur. To get to the bigger intrigue, a certain amount of time was required.

And while the time was being spent on world building, these cases were direct adaptations of the actual stories. I wouldn’t call The Red-Headed League or Hound of Baskervilles a feeble story.

Some people would also say the series was too gimmicky and almost a desi version of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock.

Srijit Mukherji: People have called Mrinal Sen gimmicky as well. So, it all depends on your perspective. You may call it experimental or you may call it gimmicky. The word ‘gimmicky’ can encompass any quirky adaptation of the canonical character.

Do you think Padatik would have worked better if you had focused on just one aspect of Mrinal Sen’s life and career, for example, the father-son bond?

Srijit Mukherji: I have always taken challenges and I think concentrating on one aspect of a person’s life is often the easy way out. Actually interweaving the various aspects of Mrinal Sen’s life — his personal life, his upheavals, his work, his politics, Mrinal Sen as a father, as a husband, his relationship with his peers, his filmmaking style — all of it has been cooked together in the perfect proportion in Padatik. People are calling it my best film ever. It is very overwhelming.

In fact Padatik is anything but a typical biopic. Unlike the hagiographies we see around us, it actually humanises the protagonist, making him a flesh and blood character, exploring his weaknesses and flaws equally as his genius.

The box office collection of Padatik was affected by the RG Kar protests and now Tekka is facing online backlash ahead of its release. Do you feel this could dent the prospects of the film at the box office?

Srijit Mukherji: It could possibly dent the collection but not to the extent it did in the case of Padatik. At that time, the protests were just starting. Now, obviously things have progressed. But the business is not something we are thinking about. We are concentrating on our work, which is to tell people that our film is releasing during Durga Puja. The rest is up to the people.

We’ve seen how the Justice Hema Committee report has caused an upheaval in the Malayalam film industry. There have been demands for a similar committee in Tollywood too…

Srijit Mukherji: Absolutely. I think it is a genuine problem on both sides. There have been genuine cases of exploitation and there have been fake complaints also. Both should be dealt with very harshly. Any committee that stops exploitation is welcome.

Tekka is your third big screen release in 2024. Counting Shekhar Home, that’s four releases in a year across theatres and OTT. Don’t you think working on multiple projects at a time takes a toll on the quality?

Srijit Mukherji: No, not really. In fact a lot of people have been calling 2024 the year of my comeback. Although I don’t know where I had gone (laughs). People are saying Padatik is my best film ever and Shekhar Home is my best Mumbai outing ever. So, I think working on multiple projects clearly doesn’t affect quality.

What is next after Tekka? And more importantly, when is the next Feluda series releasing?

Srijit Mukherji: After Tekka, I have Shotyi Bole Shotyi Kichhu Nei lined up for release. I have finished writing the screenplay for Winkle Twinkle, which I will be making next. Bhuswargo Bhayankar, the next Feluda series, will be released in December.