Kahaani Director to debut as Byomkesh Bakshi in

The latest to jump onto this bandwagon is National Award-winning director Rituparno Ghosh, who is gearing up for his very own big screen adaptation of Bandopadhyay's series. And, he has cast Kahaani director Sujoy Ghosh as detective Byomkesh in his film titled Chorabali (Quicksand).

For Sujoy, the film will mark his debut as an actor. "I have never faced the camera before but Ritu-da (Rituparno) told me I am fit for the role. If he feels so then I am game for it. He has written the screenplay and I must tell you, it is one of the best I have read so far. I could not refuse the film," said an excited Sujoy.

The rest of the cast is still a work in progress, said he, adding, "I don't know who else is acting with me. There's no role of Satyabati (Byomkesh's wife) in this story, so I don't think anybody will be playing that part."

The film will be first made in Bengali in keeping with the authenticity of the storyline. "I don't know whether it will be dubbed in Hindi and Ritu-da will decide to release it with subtitles. That is a decision that will come later I guess," said Sujoy. Among earlier adaptations of Byomkesh, the television series aired on Doordarshan (Season 1 in 1993 and Season 2 in 1997) directed by Basu Chatterjee and starring Rajat Kapoor as the detective remains the most notable.

On the big screen, Satyajit Ray's Chiriakhana (The Zoo, 1967) had Uttam Kumar playing the Bengali detective. It earned Ray critical acclaim and a National Award.

Not too long ago, there were reports of Dibakar Banerjee planning a thriller named Kolkata with a character inspired by Byomkesh. It was also reported that musician-filmmaker Anjan Dutta of The Bong Connection fame was making a trilogy based on the popular series.