Two new producers, one of them a US-based entrepreneur, have stepped in to fund the next feature film on Feluda, the popular detective character scripted by late movie maestro Satyajit Ray, after the original producers backed out over casting differences.
A source close to Sandip Ray told PTI Friday that Florida-based high tech serial entrepreneur Anjan Ghosal, a family friend of the Rays and local businessman Shyam Sundar Dey will jointly produce the thriller `Hatyapuri’ (Murderous place) and the shooting for the movie is slated to start at the temple town and sea-resort of Puri from mid-June.
The deal was clinched on Thursday just a week after differences between the original producers SVF and the director over casting in the detective movie. Producing the movie this year, the 100th anniversary year of the legendary movie director Satyajit Ray was particularly important for Ray officiandos.
The source said popular actor Indraneil Sengupta was the choice of Sandip Ray as the new Feluda and he has been preparing for the role in past few years. SVF has been casting actor Tota Roy Chowdhury in its web movies.
The role of Feluda had been earlier essayed by actors Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Abir Chatterjee in detective movies directed by Sandip Ray, while the maestro had cast the late Soumitra Chatterjee in the role in the first two Feluda films.
“The production house (SVF) might have their own priorities over certain issues. No hurt feelings. But we wanted the decision of casting should be in the domain of the filmmaker,” the source added.
Director-actor Abhijit Guha would be essaying the role of Lalmohan Ganguly a.k.a Jatayu, the popular comic character who is an author of a popular crime pulp fiction series.
Shyamsundar Dey, whose Shadow films is co-producing the movie with Ghosal, said “we will give 100 per cent creative liberty to Babuda (Sandip Ray). I had been wanting to produce his films for long.” A spokesperson of SVF told PTI three days back, “Under the SVF banner, Feluda, based on Ray’s murder thriller Hatyapuri was gearing up to peek into the minds of the audience in a new avatar with his cousin Tapesh and their hilarious pulp fiction writer friend Jatayu this year in December. The fate of this Feluda adventure is unclear, as SVF has officially turned down the project amidst major casting issues.” Sandip Ray and SVF had jointly declared the project in December 2021 and set a release deadline for the film during Christmas in 2022.
