Always been a risk taker: Dev on Byomkesh
Director Birsa Dasgupta said that talks are on for Satyabati’s casting
For Dev, every project has been a risk and therefore, when he was announced as the new Byomkesh Bakshi, he knew he was ready for the challenge. On Poila Baisakh, the actor-producer surprised his fans with the first look at ‘Byomkesh O Durgo Rahasya’.
Based on Saradindu Bandopadhyay’s ‘Durgo Rahasya’, this is the first time Dev will play the Satyanweshi. Sharing the look, he wrote, “Difficult but not possible. Byomkesh sets off on an exploration to discover the biggest mystery in Bengal’s history!”
In the poster, he is seen holding a snake in his right hand and a torch in his left. While some netizens compared the poster to Dev’s biggest blockbuster, ‘Chander Pahar’, others seem to appreciate his bold move.
“I have always been my competition. I try to do something different with each film. I know the kind of risk involved in a project like Byomkesh, especially when I’m the actor and also the co-producer. But films like ‘Baghajatin’, ‘Binodiini’ or ‘Kacher Manush’ have been risky. Unless we take risks, we won’t be able to deliver something new to the audience,” Dev told ‘Millennium Post’.
Directed by Birsa Dasgupta, the detective film will go on floors in May 2023. The last time Dev worked with Dasgupta was in the 2015 film ‘Shudhu Tomari Jonyo’. This romantic film inspired by a Tamil flick is Dasgupta’s biggest hit to date.
So, is Dasgupta feeling any pressure to direct Dev as Byomkesh? “I’m not feeling any pressure. We’re very clear about what we want to do, how we wish to mount our Byomkesh,” he said. And what about the casting of Satyabati? “We are in talks and should have clarity soon,” he said.
From Uttam Kumar in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Chiriyakhana’ (1967) to Rajit Kapur, Sujoy Ghosh, Abir Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Anirban Bhattacharya, Parambrata Chatterjee and Sushant Singh Rajput, several actors have stepped into the shoes of Byomkesh. Also, Srijit Mukherji is directing ‘Durgo Rahasya’ on the web.
Meanwhile, Dev has once again joined hands with director Avijit Sen and producer Atanu Roychadhuri for ‘Pradhan’. After ‘Tonic’, the Bengali audiences will see Paran Bandopadhyay and Dev sharing the screen for the second time.
Riding high on the success of ‘Projapati’, Dev said, “There’s a certain comfort level with us. Since we have worked on two films - ‘Tonic’ and ‘Projapati’ - we have understood our strengths and weaknesses well. This helps in the filmmaking process. As an actor-producer, it is important to have a good rapport with the team. ‘Pradhan’ will be very different from our previous projects.” Earlier, it was reported that Dev might team up with Mithun Chakraborty again after ‘Projapati’. But Mitun will soon begin working on the ambitious Bengali film ‘Kabuliwala’.
