Director Satyajit Ray | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Bengali actor Parambrata Chatterjee, who made his Hindi debut Storywill be seen in the role of Feluda, the iconic detective character created by Satyajit Ray a decade ago, for a new web series. Chain, well done feludaDirector Arindam Sil said it would be streamed from May 5, three days after Ray’s 102nd birth anniversary.
well done feluda Ray’s story ‘Gangtok-e Gondogol’ (Problems in Gangtok) will be a 10-episode series in which the detective, who is holidaying in the beautiful capital of Sikkim, ends up with the mysterious death of a businessman. “On the occasion of Ray’s 102nd birth anniversary, we are announcing this as a tribute to the great filmmaker and talented writer and painter,” Sil told PTI.
‘Gangtok-e Gondogol’ was first published in a literary magazine in 1970 but the series will see characters from the present day. “Now, Feluda will be in sync with the contemporary times. And from the very beginning, I wanted to cast Param (Parambrata Chatterjee) in the lead role. We want to connect with today’s audience,” said Sil.
Ritvobrato Mukherjee will play Topse (Tapesh Ranjan Mitter), Feluda’s cousin and Man Friday. Chatterjee herself played the role of Topse earlier. Sil said that the series introduced a female character of an IB officer, which was not in the original story, whose earlier works on spy characters include Byomkesh Bakshi and other popular spies like Sabar.
However, this is Chatterjee’s second stint as Feluda. He essayed the first character six years ago on another OTT. “That was an Indo-Bangladesh joint venture which didn’t work after a few episodes. This time, it is being done in a much bigger way,” said Chatterjee.
Earlier Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Indranil Sengupta had made Feluda for the big screen and television at different times. Tota Roy Chowdhury also played the iconic character for a web series. Chatterjee said, “I know there will be comparisons with others who were cast as Feluda earlier. It is quite normal as people are emotionally attached to hugely popular literary works.”
Of the 35 Feluda stories written by him, Satyajit Ray directed two films – sonar banana , golden fort, 1974) and Hail Baba Felunath , elephant god, 1979). However, the first spy film of the maestro was zoo , Zoo, 1967) which centered on another popular detective Byomkesh Bakshi, produced by Saradindu Bandyopadhyay.