'Jawker Dhan 3' director Sayantan Ghosal has a lot on his plate!

Come January 2024, director Sayantan Ghosal and the cast of ‘Jawker Dhan 3’ featuring Parambrata Chatterjee, Koel Mallick and Gaurav Chakraborty will be camping in Rajasthan for a long schedule. The adventurous storyline of the film intriguingly incorporates Sonar Kella. While Ghosal is busy with the pre-production of ‘Jawker Dhan 3’, he’s also gearing up for the screening of his latest film, ‘Rabindra Kabya Rahasya’, on November 24 at the 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI). Interestingly, this is Ghosal’s first IFFI submission and his film is one of three Bengali features in the ‘Indian Panorama’. Adding to the thrill, ‘Rabindra Kabya Rahasya’ is nominated for the ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Medal.

“Like everyone else, I grew up reading Rabindranath Tagore and often use Rabindra Sangeet in my work. I’ve wanted to do something with Tagore for a long time, but I didn’t want to do a biopic. In London, we found a story that felt perfect, allowing me to incorporate Tagore into a thrilling plot,” he said. However, the ‘Satyanweshi Byomkesh’ director was aware of the responsibility that came with portraying Tagore (played by Priyanshu Chatterjee). “We were extremely careful and didn’t distort any facts or figures. A substantial amount of research went into filming ‘Rabindra Kabya Rahasya’,” Ghosal said.

Despite his success in the adventure thriller genre with films like ‘Jawker Dhan’, ‘Sagardwipey Jawker Dhan’ and ‘Alinagarer Golokdhadha’, Ghosal has found a distinct fan base for women-centric shows on OTT. From the immensely popular ‘Sampurna’ starring Sohini Sarkar to ‘Indu’ featuring Isha Saha and ‘Raktakarabi’ with Raima, Ghosal has carved out his niche in the OTT world. Highlighting the differences between films and OTT, Ghosal said there’s an advantage in the digital space because one has access to demographic and audience data. “In OTT, we have access to data on the audience and know what they want to watch,” he said. However, he pointed out that despite the success of women-centric shows on Bengali OTT platforms, the subscriber base is still predominantly male-dominated.

Among his upcoming projects, Ghosal holds a special place for ‘Saralakkha Holmes’, a Bengali adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, with actor Rishav Basu as the sleuth. Ghosal has a romantic comedy ready too and he is excited to see how the audience responds when it’s released.