Saugata Bandyopadhyay, who essayed the role of Ajit on Colors Bangla’s Byomkesh and currently anchoring a grooming show on Zee Bangla, has gone behind the camera. 

 Yes, the Bengali TV actor has turned director of short films.

When Tellychakkar.com buzzed him to know more about the venture, he shared, “I am doing a few short films in association with K. R. Entertaiment Pvt. Ltd. To be released on Youtube. Shooting of one of the films, Swachh Bharat, is complete and it will release in the first week of March this year. Apart from direction, I have also done the story, script, music and screenplay.”    

What’s the film all about? “It is a short film of three minutes and five second, so I don’t want to kill the suspense by revealing the story now. What I can say is that it’s a known subject that’s not implemented by many,” he said.

He continued, “Since the film releases nationally, we’ve opted for Hindi with subtitles in English.”

Tell us how the idea of directing short films came to your mind? He said, “It was my dream to work behind the camera. I had even started working as a director for a mega serial back in 2011, but due to some unavoidable circumstances we had to hold the project. So, the wish to direct a film was always there.”

The actor said that he was a balanced person and would like to continue both acting and direction simultaneously.

“I feel I am a balanced person so I would like to continue with both. To me, acting is life and direction is like a relationship,” he said.  

Speaking about the subjects that he would like to work on for other short films, the actor revealed, “I have plans to work on subjects like transgender, lesbian, adolescent period and relationship between a boyfriend and girlfriend/saas bahu, to name a few. There is one more untitled film we are currently shooting, based on AIDS.” 

What makes you explore such subjects? He opined, “These are the topics (transgender/lesbian) of somalochona (criticism) in our society. By somalochona I mean equal criticism, where we talk about both negative and positive aspects. But unfortunately, there are some people who concentrate only on the negative part.”

“Through my films, I want to say it’s not always about their sexuality that people should emphasise on. End of the day, they are human beings too and they have emotions like any of us,” he signed off.

Good luck, boy!  

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