No holds barred: Raj Chakraborty

Raj Chakraborty is quite a big name in the industry. What’s the secret of your success?

There are two reasons why all three of my films worked so well in the box office. First, we have the greatest audience in Bengal. They are not a narrow-minded lot, and can accept and appreciate a new filmmaker’s work. Second, I think the industry is still very vacant. It’s always been like this – in need of good competition. I feel like a one-eyed man in the land of the blind. Swapan Saha and Haranath Chakraborty, two of my immediate predecessors in the industry, also didn’t have to face any competition as such.

But don’t you think the works of Swapan Saha and Haranath Chakraborty were different from what you are offering to the audience?

Well, they were masters of what they believed in, and their films were the staple of a particular section of audience, mostly rural and suburban. And this led to an inevitable stereotyping of mainstream Bengali cinema. To my mind, what those films lacked was a Bengali spirit acceptable to all sections of audience.

So, how did you go about your job behind the camera?

My approach was not to introduce a shift. All I did was tweak the packaging so as to make my characters more realistic and less melodramatic. In Chirodini, for example, I paid a lot of attention to the story. Challenge, on the other hand, had a very flimsy story so it needed a special treatment. I changed Dev’s image from a chocolate boy hero to a rough and tough action hero. Dev’s character in Challenge distinctly stood out – from his manner of speaking to costume and dance moves, the hero exuded freshness hitherto unknown in Tollywood. Prem Amar warranted an approach that would make both the story and the hero acceptable to the audience.

Many people consider you a ghorer chele (close relation) of Shree Venkatesh Films.

It’s not that Venkatesh likes to work only with me. They are professionals who don’t make life-long relationships with filmmakers. They make new directors every now and then. So, whatever association they have with me is purely professional. But I do have an association of my own. There are people who I feel comfortable working with.  

Tell us about your work in progress, Ley Chakka.

Ley Chakka, starring Dev, Payel and Ritwik, takes gully cricket as its subject. Padmanava Dasgupta had come up with the story idea a few years ago and I made it into a successful telefilm called Nagar Basanta for Zee Bangla. Ley Chakka is scheduled for release in June this year. In February, I’ll start working on my experimental film inspired by The Motorcycle Diaries.

Is this going to be an off-beat film?

Not really. Like all my previous films, this, too, will be an out-and-out commercial film, with song, dance and romance. To be honest, if I had to make a film based on a Tagore story, I’d make it a commercial entertainer and leave it to my audience’s judgement.

Is N. K. Salil still smarting for what you said in an interview to Anandabazar Patrika?

My words were misinterpreted. I never meant he couldn’t give me a concept. But I’d like to say that Salil-da is a great scriptwriter and I respect him for his work. Both of us are professionals and as a filmmaker I need to work with him.


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