In Srijit Mukherji’s film Tekka, Dev plays the role of Iqlakh, a man on a mission. He is angry and frustrated with socio-economic disparities and has a score to settle with those who belong to the privileged sections of society. With its intriguing narrative and stellar performances, Tekka, starring Dev, Rukmini Maitra and Swastika Mukherjee, has resonated with audiences. A t2 chat with Srijit.

This has been a good year for you professionally...

This year has actually been pretty good. It started off with Oti Uttam, which was a decent hit at the box office. It got a lot of acclaim for technical innovation. Then came Padatik and Shekhar Home. Padatik, for obvious reasons, didn’t do well at the box office. The need of the hour was to protest against whatever was happening. But the film got a lot of critical acclaim... people called it my best film. Padatik travelled to 10 film festivals around the world. It won the Best Screenplay Award at the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF). It has been a very satisfying journey for Padatik. On the other hand, Shekhar Home has been my biggest hit in Bombay. It got a lot of critical acclaim as well as the numbers. Then came Tekka, which was a blockbuster. And I have Bhushawrgo Bhoyonkawr coming up in December. All in all, it was a very, very satisfying 2024 professionally. In fact, if you look at the years where both critical and commercial success have come my way, then I would say they would be 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2024. These have been the best years. In the other years, I have had either critical or commercial success.

Srijit Mukherji

And you still retain the Sharadiya Srijit tag!

Yes! Tekka is my 11th Pujo blockbuster. This time, however, like two other times in the past, the film finished second on the honour’s list... but then that is fine. In 2015, Raajkahini marginally finished behind Shudhu Tomari Jonnyo. In terms of absolute numbers, Dui Prithibi was more than Autograph in 2010... though Autograph was Number One in terms of return on investment. This time, Bohurupi has trumped Tekka (laughs out loud). Bohurupi was a tailor-made film for the Pujas. It has all the trappings of an excellent mass commercial entertainer. Expectedly it did so well. Tekka was not a typical Puja entertainer. It is a single-location hostage thriller, which is a niche genre in itself. It had a fair bit of explicit language. It is not a typical entertaining family film. Which is why we are very happy with the results... we pushed this niche genre during the Pujas because that’s the only way we can create an audience for such films. This was tried before in films like Kabir, Password, Accident or Cockpit. Audiences have not always warmed up to niche genre films. The jinx has finally been broken with Tekka.

Tell us about the box-office numbers of Tekka...

At the end of the second week, we were at ₹4.1 crore. That is fantastic. Also the economics of Tekka worked out really well... even before it started its box-office journey it was sitting at a profit of ₹2 crore-plus, thanks to the digital, music and satellite deals. The total profit will be around ₹4.5 crore on a landing budget of ₹3 crore... that is approximately 150 per cent profit... and in that sense, it might just be the most profitable film of the year. A niche-genre thriller also worked for the first time.

When it comes to a hostage thriller, the narrative monotony sets in quite early...

Correct... it is inherent in the genre because structurally there are bound to be lean moments where nothing is happening. That is exactly what the film is about. It is a deadlock, it is an impasse. In fact, the original title of the film was Impasse. Whenever there is an impasse or a stalemate, there will be portions where nothing is happening. That is the problem inherent in a hostage thriller. But Tekka redeems itself because of the performances and the twist at the end. We also know that the difference in the box office numbers is because of the lack of repeat audiences. Tekka is such a twist-heavy film that once you know the twist you don’t go back to watch it a second time.

On social media, people have pointed out similarities between Tekka and Hollywood films such as Mad City or John Q.

The writer of the film Bhaskar (Chattopadhyay) wrote a nice post about this.... He has watched Mad City, and the initial triggering incident is the same. However, at a plot level, there is counter-kidnapping which is not there in any Hollywood or Bollywood film. That is the actual essence of Tekka. And then, of course, the last twist makes it absolutely different from Mad City. This has been addressed by Bhaskar, who wrote the story and screenplay, in his post.

What’s been the favourite compliment that you’ve got for this film?

The twist... people could not guess the twist. The other takeaway has been Dev and Rukmini’s performances. I am very proud of that... the way Rukmini has rediscovered herself. People have said that Dev delivered his best performance ever. Which is a great compliment. What I really liked about Bhaskar’s writing was that for the first time, I saw a twist that was not structurally done. The twist was not built up throughout the film. The twist depended on social and communal prejudices that lie in our minds. If you think about it, as an audience, it is my prejudice which stops me from guessing the twist. Swastika’s character verbalises this in the climax.

Tell us about the Kabir Suman song that comes at the beginning of the film... it has been rearranged.

Since Saregama was doing the album, I immediately asked Sumanda’s permission to use Theme jete jete and then rearranged it.

Was Kabir Suman happy with the rearranged version, since the song now has heavy guitars and throbbing beats...

Yes! He approved of the arrangement.

Why use this song?

Because it goes so very well with the spirit of Tekka... the spirit of standing up, protesting, not giving up and coming back one last time. It captures Iqlakh and Ira’s minds well.

You set up the milieu in the opening scenes of Tekka with a song. Is this a signature of yours? You had started off on a similar note in Dwitiyo Purush as well.

I like localising my stories. I like to give them a local context as well. They cannot happen anywhere. Dwitiyo Purush could have only happened in Chinatown. Tekka could have only happened in Sector V.