Chittagong

A still from "Chittagong" movie

Mumbai: Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has come to the rescue of director Bedabrata Pain to release his stalled film Chittagong. The film will be released by Kashyap and his distributor friend Sunil Bohra.

Initially, there were reports that it was filmmaker Ashutosh Gowarikar's film Khelen Hum Jee Jaan Se starring Abhishek Bachchan that was causing a hurdle in the release of Chittagong' since the two films are based on same subject.

"Anurag is a good friend. He liked the film a lot and told me about it. We are jointly presenting the film and we will try and ensure that the film has a wide release like any other commercial film," Bohra said in a statement.

Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, a period film directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, starring Abhishek and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles, was based on the Chittagong Uprising of 1930. The film which was released last December, was a box office failure.

Directed by Bedabrata Pain, Chittagong, starring Manoj Bajpai in the lead, is scheduled to release early next year. The film is set against the backdrop of a little-known saga in 1930s British-occupied India where a group of
schoolboys and young women, led by a teacher, Masterda Surya Sen, played by Bajpai dared to take on the British Empire.

"The delay was a blessing in disguise as it gave us some more time to do the patchwork better. I am honoured that filmmakers such as Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bharadwaj, Rakeysh Mehra, Ketan Mehta and others have loved the film. I am thrilled that the film is getting released now," Pain said.

The poster boy of Indie cinema found himself in an awkward situation thanks to an error by Chittagong's producer Sunil Bohra

It is rumoured that Amitabh Bachchan had used his clout to stop the release of director Bedabrata Pain's Chittagong, because it was based on the same lines as that of the Abhishek Bachchan-Deepika Padukone-starrer Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. While Gowariker's film released and hardly found any takers, Bedabrata's version of the uprising in Chittagong was seen and appreciated by many people, especially by hatke filmmakers like Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra and Vishal Bhardwaj. They were very vocal about their liking for Chittagong and thus producer Sunil Bohra (known for producing offbeat films like Bejoy Nambiar's Shaitan and Ramgopal Varma's Not A Love Story) came on board. An excited Sunil got the first-look poster of the film made and splashed it with all the quotes of celebs appreciating the film. Little did he realise that one of the first quotes is that of filmmaker Anurag Kashyap who is also the presenter of the film. Now if Kashyap is presenting the film, obviously his take on the film would seem biased and might even turn people away from watching it. Anurag's fans pointed out the mistake to him and he in turn tweeted to Sunil, "Presenter bhi main aurquote bhi mera.. yeh hazam nahi hua @sunilThebohra" (It's hard to digest that you are using my quote despite the fact that I am also the presenter of the film). He then requested Sunil to take off his quote from the poster. We are now eagerly waiting to watch Chittagong and see if it is really as good as these acclaimed filmmakers want us to believe.