Byomkesh Bakshi, one of the longest surviving detective characters in India since 1933 and claimed to be India's original Sherlock Holmes, is turning a new leaf. The copyright of 31 stories of the fictional character, created by well-known Bengali novelist and scriptwriter (late) Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, are being bought over by Yash Raj Films (YRF) and Dibakar Banerjee Productions combine to make Byomkesh Bakshi-centred films in all languages except Bengali.
According to industry sources, the tab for the rights, which the combine has forked out to Bandyopadhyay's family, is Rs 9-10 crore and for "perpetuity". That, in simple terms, means 70 years after the death of the writer, which is till 2040. And the aim is to make it into a pan-India and later on an international brand franchise, just like other well-known detective characters such as Sherlock Holmes. The deal also includes the rights to commercially use the stories and films, sound recordings, titles and its characters and names. It also includes the right to create comic books such as graphic novels, strips, pages, serialisation, panels and arts, among others, that could be based on the films or its characters. Confirming the development, filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee says: "We want to give Byomkesh Bakshi a definitive brand identity with a complete different rendition to his character. Currently, there are various renditions of his character and different interpretations, which dilute the brand. Have you ever seen a different rendition of the Batman? The answer is no."
Banerjee says they have not taken the rights for Bengali purely out of respect for the writer. He says that to begin with, the first film will be made in Hindi but he did not rule out dubbing them in other languages as the process goes by. On making the character international. Banerjee says: "That is the dream. For that, we will require a global star to enact the role."
| BUILDING A FRANCHISE |
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Global plans The rights of Byomkesh Bakshi’s 31 stories, a detective character created in 1933 by well-known Bengali novelist and scriptwriter Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, are being bought by Yash Raj Films and Dibakar Banerjee Productions to make films in all languages, except Bengali. The tab, according to industry sources, for the rights which the two have forked out to Bandyopadhyay’s family is Rs 9-10 crore and it is for “perpetuity”, which means for 70 years after the death of the writer, till 2040. The aim is to make Byomkesh Bakshi an international brand franchise, like Sherlock Homes |
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Byomkesh Bakshi |
Byomkesh Bakshi became one of the most popular characters in Bengali fiction apart from Feluda of Satyajit Ray, Kakababu of Sunil Gangopadhyay, Parashor Barma and Ghanada of Premendra Mitra and Tenida of Narayan Gangopadhyay. Byomkesh had a strong association with the character Ajit, who was with him in all but five novels, in which Ajit is the narrator. Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, advocate by profession, started writing in 1932, and took a 15-year break after he shifted to Mumbai for writing screenplays for Bollywood films
Banerjee and YRF are rolling out the first film, Detective Byomkesh, set in the Kolkata of 1940s, in line with how the writer had conceived the novel. A young, astute and intelligent Byomkesh, fresh out of college, pits himself against a mega world villain in the story. The film will go on floor in January 2014 and release worldwide on December 12, 2014. In India, character franchising for films is limited. Satyajit Ray's family, for instance, has the rights over Feluda - the detective character created by Ray. Ray himself made films based on Feluda's stories, including the hugely popular Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress).
Bandyopadhyay also inspired Ray to make Chiriyakhana (The Zoo) based on Byomkesh. Veteran director Basu Chatterjee directed a critically acclaimed adaptation of Byomkesh Bakshi for Doordarshan, played by actor Rajit Kapur. Rituparno Ghosh, who died recently, was working on a Byomkesh film.
