Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne Franchise Going the Byomkesh Way?
RBN Web Desk: It seems to be a mad rush to get the blessings of the king of ghosts from Satyajit Ray’s iconic film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne. If industry reports are to be believed, at least three persons are in a race to the finish to hit the screen with the next part of the Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne franchise in 2019.
Incidentally, this is the golden jubilee year of the film which released on 8 May 1969 and broke several box office records. Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne was the biggest hit in Ray’s career as a filmmaker.
Director Anindya Chatterjee, according to industry sources, has already held talks with Arijit Dutta to continue with the series. Arijit’s grandfather Nepal Dutta was the producer of Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne. Arijit, the managing director of Priya Entertainments, reportedly holds the film rights of the fantasy adventure film.
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But in a later development, actor-producer Prosenjit Chatterjee, recently announced that he will be making a modern version of the film. Speaking to the media recently, Prosenjit said, he has spoken to Ray’s son Sandip Ray in this regard. The Bengal superstar even released the first-look poster of the film while announcing five other projects from his production house. Sources, however, say that Prosenjit had offered Anindya the Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne revival project.
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But now comes the latest. Director Pavel now seems to have joined the fray in continuing with the series. Sources reveal that Pavel, who made his directorial debut with Babar Naam Gandhiji (2015), registered a story titled Abar Hirak Deshe with The Film Writers Association, Mumbai, in 2016. He has been working on the storyboard all this while. Pavel reportedly narrated the project to Prosenjit, and promised to make the film only for him and no other producer, sources added.
It seems that celluloid’s most popular singer and drummer, all said and done, are going the Byomkesh Bakshi way.
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It may be recalled that four Byomkesh films, based on the stories written by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, hit the screens in 2015. Shaibal Mitra released Shajarur Kanta, which had veteran actor Dhritiman Chatterjee playing an older Byomkesh, while Dibakar Banerjee made Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! in Hindi with Sushant Singh Rajput in the title role. Anjan Dutt meanwhile came up with Byomkesh Bakshi where Jisshu Sengupta played the fictional sleuth, while Arindam Sil released Har Har Byomkesh, which had Abir Chatterjee in the lead.
Come 2019 and there could be multiple Goopy Baghas, or their children, vying for audience attention.
