Detective Byomkesh Bakshy - Motion Poster (Video+Article - Pg:4)

Sushant S RajputVerified account @itsSSR

Arindam Sil @silarindam Kolkata, West Bengal

Byomkesh Bakshy @byomkeshbakshy

Upcoming Hindi Film Detective Byomkesh Bakshy Poster Unveiled in Kolkata

Read more: http://sholoanabangaliana.in/blog/2014/12/22/upcoming-hindi-film-detective-byomkesh-bakshy-poster-unveiled-in-kolkata/#ixzz3MddyyFb8

Poster boy

- DIBAKAR BANERJEE AND SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT LAUNCH THE DETECTIVE BYOMKESH BAKSHY! MOTION POSTER IN CALCUTTA

Calcutta 1943: A city under threat from a military invasion by the Japanese. The dockyard had been bombed on December 6 and two weeks later, a bomb dropped right next to The Great Eastern Hotel and created a giant crater in the city's central business district. The date: December 20, 1943.

Calcutta 2014: Filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee, the man behind critically-acclaimed films like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Love Sex Aur Dhokha and Shanghai, unveils the motion poster of his ambitious project Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, set in the Calcutta of 1943, at The Lalit Great Eastern, a new-look star address where the landmark hotel once stood. The date: December 20, 2014.

After launching his film, based on the adventures of Saradindu Bandopadhyay's super sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi, at Alipore's Burdwan Rajbari in July 2013 and shooting a major part of the film at Calcutta landmarks like Howrah Bridge and Tiretta Bazar, Dibakar Banerjee did a first by choosing Calcutta to unveil the motion poster of the film, nationally, on Saturday evening.

"All filmmakers promote their films as much as they can, but this particular poster launch standing here at what used to be the iconic and erstwhile Great Eastern Hotel is a very special occasion for me. This is a film which I wanted to make ever since I was 13 or 14 and today, as I make Byomkesh, I feel I am a kid who has been given the biggest toy. Onek din-er shopno chhilo je Byomkesh niye chhobi korbo," said Delhi boy Dibakar.

ON THE CUSP OF HISTORY

Before launching the motion poster, Dibakar and Team Byomkesh screened a documentary specially created for the occasion, a documentary of Calcutta in 1943, "right when it was on the cusp of history, 70 years ago".

"In a way, we are celebrating 70 years of a bomb going off! This was perhaps the first time when the Indian mainland was attacked by a foreign military power. There were air raids and shelters and trenches were created.

There were sirens going off during the day and people were taken through military drills... there was an atmosphere of dread and fear, but also a feeling of excitement. This was also the time when Netaji (Subhas Chandra Bose) invaded India with his Azad Hind Fauj," said Dibakar who has his history " Byomkesh and beyond " down pat. And he had to " present at the launch was Prabir Banerjee, Saradindu Bandopadhyay's nephew.

The Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! motion poster, about 30 seconds long, opens interestingly with Japanese military jets attacking the plain below, in what appears to be Calcutta. The voice-over is in the form of a radio commentary that outlines the threat of invasion looming large over Calcutta. As the Howrah Bridge appears on the horizon, Sushant Singh Rajput " as Byomkesh Bakshy in dhoti and coat, hair slickly oiled back " literally "jumps" over the bridge. Yes, a lot like James Bond meets 300 meets Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon!

Cue for Sushant " dressed in a dhoti and asymmetrical China coat and sporting a pocket watch " to make an enty, striking the same pose in front of the poster as he does on it. "I didn't read or watch anything Byomkesh before or during shoot. But once the shoot got over, I read and watched everything on Byomkesh I could find. He's a fascinating character and such an honour for me to play," smiled Sushant, whose boy-next-door act in Friday film PK has earned him unanimous praise.

"When we read Saradindu Banerjee's Byomkesh stories, we have a sense of Calcutta in terms of place and time. The golden era of Byomkesh, for me, is that from his early years to the 1950s. Our Byomkesh is set in this crucial moment of India's, and particularly, Calcutta's, history," said Dibakar.

DETECTIVE OR SATYANWESHI?

Byomkesh didn't want to be known as a detective and that's why the term satyanweshi (meaning "seeker of truth") was attributed to his skills as a sleuth. So why call the film Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!?

"Yes, Saradinduji's stories mention that Byomkesh felt like a detective, he had the walk and talk of a detective, but he didn't want to be known as one. However, we have decided to go with Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! because it has a national appeal and will work well with the Bollywood audience," smiled Sushant. "In the words of Ajit (Byomkesh's Dr Watson played in Dibakar's film by Anand Tiwari), Byomkesh jotoi nijeke satyanweshi bole porichoy dik, shey je ekta beshorkari detective sheta o bhalo korei jaane. We took a cue from that and used the word detective'," added Dibakar.

The comic-book feel of the poster " designed by Calcutta firm Grinning Tree " is also a first of sorts for Bollywood. "I wanted the poster to appear like a comic, the ones that represented Bangla noir and Bangla pulp. It's in line with the kind of illustrations done by Bimal Das or popularised by Debsahitya Kutir," said Dibakar.

The decision to cast Sushant as Byomkesh has been questioned ever since the film was announced, but the man who had enough faith in Rajkummar Rao (then Yadav) to cast him in Love Sex Aur Dhokha when he was a nobody, said: "I could have cast a 45-year-old superstar who would have acted as a 22-year-old, as it mostly happens in our films. We could have offered this role to a new face. But I wanted someone who was on the verge of huge stardom. Sushant is someone who has made it on his own, just by hard work. That's always an exciting person to work with. Also, a Bengali detective is an understated gentleman and anyone who knows Sushant will vouch for the fact that he's a gentleman who epitomises understated acting," smiled the director.

Pssst: Not many know that Ranveer Singh had lobbied hard with producer Aditya Chopra for the part, but Dibakar stuck with Sushant.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Tolly star Swastika Mukherjee, who plays Anguri in the film, was conspicuous by her absence, but Dibakar had kind words for his mystery lady. "Swastika is an amazing actress. She's a performer who reminded me of the age-old actresses who had a certain tranquility in their acting. She's superb in my film."

Purists, please note: Come April 10 and Team Byomkesh warns that they will present a Byomkesh you haven't seen before. "Right from the beginning, we have been saying what our tagline says: Expect the Unexpected'. We have contemporised it for the audience of today. Once the teaser came out, Anjanda (Dutt, who's made three Byomkesh films) called me to say how much he had loved it and he told me to go for it' and not worry about the backlash, if any. When a work of literature becomes a work of film, some degree of transmutation is bound to take place. I am ready for both bouquets and brickbats," signed off Dibakar.

HERE COMES THE BHADRALOK: Dressed in a crisp white dhoti and shirt, grey asymmetric China coat and sporting a pocket watch, Sushant looked every inch a Bangali bhadralok of 1943 at the launch. "It was very, very tough initially and I struggled big time. But I started wearing it even at home and seven or eight days later, I had got the hang of things," said Sushant about his struggle with the dhoti. But why the coloured long locks at the launch? Sushant is currently shooting for M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story in which he plays the Team India captain.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141223/jsp/t2/story_4750.jsp#.VJjW7AIDs

NDTV Interview:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLLI9L_HfQs[/YOUTUBE]

Launch video:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgnk6QS_LwY[/YOUTUBE]

Plus the motion poster actually makes sense.. It adds something to the poster and is a sort of continuation to the teaser which ended with Byomkesh looking over the city but his face was not shown... Many a times it seems that a motion poster has been made just for the heck of it and does not add anything new other than just showing the poster in different ways.. This is good..!! 👍🏼

Waiting for more videos and articles, pics from the launch!!