Feluda, late film maestro Satyajit Ray's famed literary sleuth, has remained an undying draw for the audiences. After Ray made two Feluda films, Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress) which released in 1974 and Jai Baba Felunath (The Elephant Goddess) in 1978, both of which were runaway hits, Ray's son, Sandip, came back with a Feluda feature, Bombaiyer Bombete (The Goons of Bombay) in 2003 which was a thumping success story.
Now, Sandip Ray's fifth Feluda flick, Royal Bengal Rahashya (Royal Bengal Mystery) is attracting the crowds in hoardes. Of course, his previous Feluda, Gorosthane Shabdhan (Beware the Graveyard) was also a box office hit.
A co-production and financed by Tollywood's leading producers Venkatesh Films and Surinder Films, Royal Bengal Rahashya has seen a huge release across 70-plus theatres in Bengal. It has also opened in Bangalore, Mumbai, Assam, Jamshedpur and Ranchi. Delhi is next on the anvil. "Royal Bengal Rahashya is tipped to swing a theatrical gross of around Rs 4 crore at the end of the third week (January 12)," says Nispal Singh, director, Surinder Films. Back in 2003, according to industry sources, Sandip's first Feluda hit, had seen a consolidated net collection of about Rs 2 crore against a budget in the region of Rs 1 crore-plus. Gorosthane Shabdhan, which opened in end-2010 and spilled over into the beginning of 2011, had touched a net of around Rs 1 crore.
"We are also planning to release Royal Bengal Rahashya internationally. To begin with, we will home in on the US and UK. In fact, we are contemplating taking Royal Bengal .... to overseas locales which sport pockets of the Bengali population. Expectations are that the movie will run between 50 and 100 days. We had been waiting to produce a Sandipda film for a long time. In fact, we are keen to do more films with him," informs Singh.
"Royal Bengal Rahashya was written by my father around 1975. The fascinating element we discovered is that he had bought numerous books on jungles and wildlife before he wrote this book. My father would always sign in the books he purchased and date them. Interestingly, these books were all bought in 1974. So, it clearly underscores that he was extensively researching into wildlife before he authored this book. And, we found a range of jungle books from Jim Corbett to Kenneth Anderson to writings on wildlife behaviour and antique wildlife books. Actually, father was himself deeply interested in wildlife," recalls Sandip.
All Feluda novels involved research, according to Sandip. Thus, they are all educative and informative for the younger lot and adults, alike. "But, unlike every other Feluda novel, Royal Bengal Rahashya has no villain or culprit, as we say. That adds a different dynamism. It's a psychological Feluda. Being a film maker himself, my father's novels are visually very exciting. However, transcreating from one medium to the other invariably calls for some changes. But, Royal Bengal Rahashya, I found, did not require any alterations virtually. And, that made it very difficult to make. So, I took a lot of time over it," says Sandip.
"However, I must add that I had to make one major departure from what my father had written. And, for this, I decided to have a detailed discussion with my protagonist, Sabyasachi Chakravarty," says Sandip.
Sabyasachi is the well-known Bengali actor who plays Feluda in Sandip's films. But, it doesn't stop there. He is also a professional wildlife photographer of repute. "I decided to chat up with Sabyasachi about certain intricate details about like the killing of the tiger and two snakes, a Banded Krait and a Cobra, in Royal Bengal Rahashya. Sabyasachi said that this Ray novel was one of his favourite and he was yearning to act in it. However, he told me that I would need to do without the animal killings based on the current forest laws. I thus fine-tuned the screenplay so that I could stick to these guidelines," informs Sandip.
Shooting unfolded between March-April and September 2011 and spread across Dhenkanal in Orissa, Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary in North Bengal and Ballabpur Sanctuary near Bolpur in the neighbourhood of Shantiniketan. "Thanks to Sabyasachi's connections in wildlife circles, we could shoot in the elephant corridor, an absolutely virgin territory as far as the camera goes, in Mahananda," says Sandip.
"And, also because it was a Satyajit Ray novel. It was the core area for elephants and there were securitymen with rifles constantly accompanying us in case something went amiss." Interestingly, the Orissa shoot took place at the aristocratic household of the Singh Deos.
Ray's Royal Bengal big cat is now on the prowl.
