Showing posts with label Kaushik Ghatak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kaushik Ghatak. Show all posts
Samrat’s adventures to turn into animation films
8:02 AM
Garima Sharma (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 14, 2014)
In a time of promotional blitzkriegs, the makers of Samrat & Co wanted to ensure a fresh strategy for their detective thriller, something they felt justified the genre of the film.
Consequently, they have conceptualised several creative products, including a few animation films which highlight the adventures of Samrat and his company.
In each film, Samrat will solve a case and the film’s cast, featuring Rajeev Khandelwal, Madalsa Sharma and Gopal Datt, have dubbed for their animated avatars. These animated films will also be part of the franchise.
The makers have made a conscious decision to visit only those television shows for promotion that complement the detective genre of their film. Says producer Kavita Barjatya, “We had to do something different as there are a lot of products in the market.” Adds director Kaushik Ghatak, “This is not just a film for me. It’s the world of Samrat, where he undertakes many adventures. Eventually, we will come up with comic books and video games too.”
Samrat & Co, produced by Rajshri Productions, releases April 25.
Rajeev Khandelwal took up Samrat & Co to know the climax of the film
7:49 AM
Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; April 3, 2014)
Strange as it may sound, when the director of the upcoming detective thriller Samrat & Co. narrated Rajeev Khandelwal the script, he did not narrate the entire script, but did it only till the climax scene. The director Kaushik Ghatak told Rajeev that he would tell him the climax only if he came on board. Once Rajeev agreed to do the film, Kaushik kept his promise of narrating the climax to him, but, to his surprise, Rajeev did not want to hear it and requested him not to. Telling us his reasons for doing that, Rajeev said, “The script had been so gripping that I decided to play Samrat in my head, trying to actually solve the case while shooting the film. But all my guesses were wrong and I couldn’t guess the right climax. Finally, even when we shot the climax, only those involved in the scene really knew it. The rest of the cast will see it with the audience when the film releases.”
Samrat And Co is not Sherlock-Kavita Barjatya
8:29 AM
Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 24, 2014)
Kavita, the third generation of the filmy family, forayed into showbiz with TV soaps and after eight years of good bahus, bad vamps and no shades in between, was ready for a palate cleansing thriller.
Surprisingly, her father, Kamal Kumar Barjatya, who is the head of the family and the business too, showed an interest in murder mysteries during a period of convalescence two years ago and immediately said yes when she narrated this story writer-director Kaushik Ghatak had been working on for four years. "The rest of the family too has been extremely supportive,” says the debutant film producer.
The breakaway from the Rajshri tradition does not end there. Kavita has used technicians who’ve never worked with the home banner before, including a host of composers who came up with a party song, Tequila Vequila, which is unlike anything we’ve heard in a Rajshri film'.
“My favourite film was my grandfather Tarachand Barjatya’s Dulhan Wohi Jo Piya Man Bhaye, but the idea here is to reel in the youth since they are the main theatre going audience,” she says, explaining the need to go for digital movement posters and a YouTube campaign made up of animation videos based on Ghatak’s short stories.
Explaining why she chose to go with Rajeev Khandelwal, she reasons that A-listers are very busy and she didn’t want to wait for their dates for two years: “Besides, as soon as we gave Rajeev the script, he memorised all the lines. That’s the kind of involvement we were looking at.”
So can we expect to see an Indian version of the BBC TV show Sherlock, given that Samrat seems to have a lot in common with the British sleuth played by Benedict Cumberbatch? “Sherlock Holmes is a benchmark for every detective. But I’ve read Edgar Allen Poe and Agatha Christie and dada has grown up on Bengali literature. Samrat is very Indian. Yes, he uses a magnifying glass and wears a long coat but so did Karamchand,” she argues.
Does she plan to return to TV’s kitchen politics again with her partner-in-crime Ghatak? “No, as far as TV goes, creative stagnation has set in. Besides, it’s an exhausting grind and right now all I can think of is going off on a 10-day break with no Internet or phone connection,” she laughs, adding when she returns Ghatak will be waiting with a traditional love story and a quirky one. "And Samrat 2. We made this film with the idea of a franchise.”
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