Parambrata Chatterjee slammed Bengali filmmakers for making sub-standard remakes of South Indian films.
Bengali superstar Parambrata Chatterjee, who has also been a part of multiple successful Hindi films such as Kahaani, Pari, and Bulbbul among others, has responded to Hindi director and actor Anurag Kashyap’s statement calling Bengali cinema ‘ghatiya’ in comparison with other regional cinema.
Speaking at the Indian Express Screen Live session, Parambrata said, “We have stopped focusing on mainstream commercial Bengali cinema. If mainstream cinema in any industry doesn’t work, then it is very difficult to make any other kind of film. Because the audience size should be that big that you can eat out of that. Our kind of cinema (alternative cinema) thrives on surplus. If there is no steady inflow, then there is no surplus. There is an alienation that happened in 2011. While Bengali cinema was seeing a resurgence of sorts through filmmakers like Srijit da, Kaushik Ganguly and others, who were making middle road Bengali films, the industry unexpectedly shifted away from making big massy Bengali entertainers.”
“Very loosely and carelessly made South remakes were dished out to the masses. Audience didn’t react to that very well as they found the same films being dubbed in Hindi and being aired on national channels, so they didn’t want to go back and watch these cheap Bengali remakes of South films. The audience size of Bengali cinema kept reducing. Big chunk of West Bengal doesn’t watch Bengali cinema because they feel nobody cares about them. So, it is important that mass entertainers are made in Bengali cinema and that they fetch money so that other kind of cinema can be made”, he further added.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Parambrata’s latest film Shotyi Bole Shotyi Kichhu Nei was released in the theatres on January 23. The Bengali legal thriller is an adaptation of the 1989 Hindi classic Ek Ruka Hua Faisla, which itself is an official remake of the 1957 Hollywood cult 12 Angry Men.
