A charming doctor who takes up his own path of justice. A writer who is caught in a web of murder mystery. A criminal recently out of jail. Saptaswa Basu’s new thriller Doctor Bakshi, starring Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Subhashree Ganguly, Bonny, Maahi and more, promises to be an intriguing watch. “I am really excited to start off the shoot with them,” smiles Saptaswa (inset), who was present at Brewhive in Sector V recently with Subhashree and Maahi to launch the character poster of Subhashree.
Is Doctor Bakshi a spin-off of your film Pratidwandi? How is it a spin-off?
Yes, Doctor Bakshi is a spin-off of my previous film Pratidwandi. By definition a spin-off means producing a fresh content based on a previous project or character which received popularity and acclaim. Doctor Bakshi, the character, was played by Saswata Chatterjee in Pratidwandi and it was immensely loved by the viewers. In this new film which has the character in its title, we will be showing a new story based on this character’s journey with a fresh set of characters and the stakes will be higher this time. So yes, Doctor Bakshi is a spin-off.
Subhashree cuts a cake to ring in her birthday at Brewhive.
Why did you think it was necessary to make a spin-off?
First, it is very critical to choose a subject for doing a new film. People are very reluctant to go to theatres and they are really looking for something very exciting to go for a theatrical experience. Therefore when Pratidwandi got such a good theatrical run and the character of doctor got much praise, we and the producers decided to put up a fresh storyline and design to make a film based on this character’s journey. We knew from the beginning that it would be a very engaging content laced with thrill and mystery, which will get probably more love from the viewers, at least we are trying our best for that. This will surely inspire a chunk of audience to get a ticket and go for a big-screen experience.
What is the storyline of Doctor Bakshi?
The story of this new film starts off with Mrinalini, a writer (played by Subhashree) who goes to a heritage hotel for a few days to spend time alone and work on her new novel. In this hotel a murder happens mysteriously and it is found that the key characters of our film are somehow connected to this murder. Shradhha, a professional dancer (played by Maahi), Dr Samanta (played by Soumyajit) and other characters have their stories and shades all connected to this mystery. Enter Doctor Bakshi (played by Parambrata) who solves this using his medical methods and deductions. It’s not a detective story, rather most of the characters have a touch of both white and black in them and a constant tension among the players will drive the narrative forward.
Subhashree cuts a cake to ring in her birthday at Brewhive.
How did you decide on the lead cast?
The lead cast was decided when Arnab (writer) and myself were deciding upon the key characters and their look design. This story has an interesting twist which we cannot reveal now. Subhashree was our very first choice as the narrative is driven by a strong female character and we are loving the way she is experimenting with roles and concepts. She loved the concept and immediately after that Parambrata was finalised as the charming and intelligent doctor who serves justice in his own way.
We will see Bonny here as a criminal recently out of jail and Maahi as the dancer, Soumyajit and Akshay as doctors and Rahul were also decided while writing the script as the main players of the film. We did a comprehensive look set for all of the characters and found them to be fitting with the scenes.
Why cast Subhashree and Param?
Subhashree and Parambrata both are fine actors and they have been doing new kinds of roles and experimenting with fresh content. In our film we have strong characters with layers that make our film a dark and hard-hitting thriller. This requires the elegance and panache of someone like them. Doing look set and script reading has gave me ample time to gel with both of them and incorporate their inputs to make the characters more organic. We have discussed and tried various looks of the characters, and went on adding small details and variations, which they wanted to try out for playing this one.
Maahi
How would you decode the first-look poster of Subhashree?
We have revealed the character poster of Subhashree as Mrinalini Sen recently, coinciding with her birthday as a special wish from our team. The poster has a sense of mystery and crime and we are showing her sitting in an abandoned surgical room with a knife, with broken glasses and blood element. It clearly indicates that either she has committed some horrific crime or she is trapped in a situation which has created shock and exhaustion in the character. We wanted to create this dilemma in the poster and let the audience interpret it from their perspectives. An interesting point of the poster is the broken glass window at the back where the cracked portion is shaped like a womb, so it may indicate something related to a newly-born baby. Is it Mrinalini’s or Bakshi’s, we do not know at this point. How all this adds up in the film is to look out for.
Will Doctor Bakshi explore and expose medical scams?
Definitely. Doctor Bakshi will address a set of medical scams that happens in a number of places in our country and abroad too. We respect doctors and put them in the place of God, however, there are a segment of people among them who treat this industry as a business for their needs and go on a dark path. There are many cases of medical corruption that we get to know from the news where innocent lives and families get ruined. Doctor Bakshi will try to address a number of such scams and we do not know whether directly or indirectly he is also part of one.