Dibakar Banerjee's upcoming film 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshi' is set in 1940s Kolkata and the National-award winning filmmaker says it was a task for him to recreate the era of the city in the movie.
Set in 1943 Kolkata, 'Detective Byomkesh' stars Sushant Singh Rajput in the titular role besides Anand Tiwari and Bengali actress Swastika Mukherjee in other pivotal characters.
"'Byomkesh Bakshi' is one of the most challenging films of my career. It was a challenging task to recreate Kolkata (then Calcutta) because that was the time when Japan bombed Kolkata. We recreated the roads, trams and the famous China town of that era. All these were needed to portray the film in a really convincing way," Dibakar said.
To recreate the era of '40s, Dibakar had gone through series of research.
"It was research work of two years. I have read many books set in that era to have a better understanding. I also spoke to people who still remember the city of that time. I researched through 1000 of photographs, " he said.
As a kid, Dibakar never used to miss any episode of Basu Chatterjee's TV series 'Byomkesh Bakshi' and says since then he has been nurturing the dream to make a film on the fictitious detective character.
Dibakar, 45, who is behind critically acclaimed films like 'Shanghai', 'Love Sex aur Dhokha' among others, is looking forward to the release of the film.
"I always used to wait for the TV series when I was a 14-year-old kid. As a kid, I was very much intrigued by the fictitious Bengali detective and always wanted to give him a big screen adaptation. Now, as I am a filmmaker I am just fulfilling my childhood dream," Dibakar told reporters here on the sidelines of NFDC's Film Bazaar.
The film chronicles the early life of the famous sleuth created by writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. Dibakar feels Sushant is apt for the film.
"This film talks about the young days of Byomkesh who goes to college. I feel Sushant is such an actor who is standing on the verge of stardom and super stardom. He doesn't talk much but he has a strong will power. These are few things which matches with Byomkesh's character," he said.
The filmmaker said though the film is set in the '40s, it will also address the issues of today's time.
