My character in Mahanayak bears traces of Uttam: Prosenjit

"Yes for months during shoots, I was confined within the looks of a superstar representing that era. You can say I carried the looks of both Uttamjethu (Uttam uncle) and my father Biswajit Chatterjee. 

I totally inhabited in that period and tried to get into the skin of my matinee idol character by sporting the retro look," Prosenjit told PTI at the pre-telecast premier of certain visuals of the much anticipated serial.

"The more I took part in the shooting, the greater I got an intimate knowledge of that era (60s-70s). As I enacted certain incidents reported to have taken place in the superstar's life, I surely could connect," Prosenjit, who is named Arun, said.

Sporting the 60s' glamourous heroine's party look at the programme, principal female lead of the serial Paoli Dam, whose character is interestingly called 'Sucharita', stopped short of describing it as inspired by Suchitra Sen's life.

"That is for you, the audience to decipher. My character is fictional. But yes I had to mould myself for that role and that was very taxing mouthing lots of dialogues of that period," Paoli said when told her make-up and looks in Mahanayak largely resembled Suchitra Sen in her late 20s.

Director Birsa Dasgupta said "Mahanayak is a fictional biopic of a matinee idol which explores the untold story of a remarkable life beneath the glare of arc light."