Sunglass to release, finally

After a long wait that had almost everyone associated with Rituparno Ghosh's film Sunglass annoyed, the director is now seeing some hope. He confirmed that he had been asked to get the final edit ready by the film’s producer Planman Motion Pictures. But it’s the Hindi version that will release first, he said. The director did not elaborate on what might have caused a further delay in releasing the film's Bengali version.

According to a Planman official, the Hindi version of Sunglass will release between end August and early September. So far, Rituparno Ghosh and Planman have shot three films together—Dosar, The Last Lear and Sunglass. The first two were released to good responses, both from the audience and the press. But after completing the shoot for Sunglass, both the director and the producer became silent on when the film was likely to release -- giving rise to speculations about possible causes of the delay.

Shubho Shekhar Bhattacharjee of Planman, credited as the executive producer for Sunglass, said, “We entered Rituda’s next project The Last Lear soon after Sunglass schedules ended. Then we decided to go ahead with the release of the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer The Last Lear. But Rituda, who usually has a number of projects towed with him at any given time, could not make sufficient time to complete the remaining works of Sunglass. Also, the film has many sequences that require special effects, and effects take a lot of time.”

Rituparno started working on Sunglass in 2006. Shooting stills show him with thick, curly hair all over his head which is now shaven. He’s had a number of releases in between, and has also acted in a Koushik Ganguly movie Aar Ekti Premer Kahini. In a recent press conference, he was heard saying that he doesn’t like that many of his films are screened at foreign festivals before releasing in the city. Kolkata holds the right to watch his films first, he said, adding “But that’s the way it is. It’s difficult to get proper theatre chains these days.”

However, it’s unlikely that unavailability of theatres has in any way contributed to the delay in the Bengali version’s release. “It’s just that we have now got three distributors interested in releasing the Hindi version. We’ll have to choose one. We’ll also start discussions for releasing the Bengali version soon”, said Shubho Shekhar Bhattacharjee.

On whether the early release of the Hindi Sunglass can kill the prospects of the Bengali version, he said, “Rituda has a niche audience in Bengal who would like to watch the film in Bengali even though the Hindi version comes first. But we are trying so that the two releases coincide.”

Bengali actor Tota Roy Chowdhury has lent his voice to Madhavan’s character for the Bengali version. Madhavan, who visited Kolkata recently to promote his latest release Teen Patti hoped Sunglass would showcase his acting skills properly, while expressing despair over the delay in its release. Besides him, the film has an impressive cast that includes Konkona Sensharma, Naseerudin Shah, Jaya Bachchan and Raima Sen, among others.


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