Shooting for Sagardwipey Jawker Dhan was an adventurous ride for Koel Mallick

Sayantan Ghosal’s upcoming treasure hunt film Sagardwipey Jawker Dhan (2019) is slated for release on 6 December. Featuring Parambrata Chatterjee, Koel Mallick, Gaurav Chakrabarty, Santilal Mukherjee, Kaushik Sen and Rajatava Dutta, the film, inspired by Hemendra Kumar Roy’s adventure stories of Bimal and Kumar, has been written by the director with Sougata Basu.

The film is the second part of the treasure-hunt franchise that began with Jawker Dhan (2017). While Chatterjee as Bimal and Chakrabarty as Kumar will be reprising their roles, Mallick will add to the twisted adventure story as Dr Ruby Chatterjee.

In the film, Bimal and Kumar hunt for a rare chemical called Red Mercury, a potential substitute for fossil fuels. Dr Ruby Chatterjee happens to join their adventure; however, her sole goal is to save the life of a girl played by Adolina Chakrabarty.

According to Mallick, Sagardwipey Jawker Dhan is a visual extravaganza. “We can clearly understand from the trailer that such a visual treat has not been offered by any Bengali film so far,” she said, adding that the film would be ideal for a winter vacation.

“I can remember my mother taking me to the zoo during winter vacations," she said at the trailer release earlier this month. "Then, as I was growing up, I could sense that winter vacation was also a time for watching good films. However, these days not many children's films are released. With Sagardwipey Jawker Dhan, I can see hope for getting into the fantasy world of children as Ruby Chatterjee and hence I am way more excited about the film!"

This year, Mallick also played the character of Mitin Masi, a female detective originally created by Suchitra Bhattacharya, in Arindam Sil’s film of the same name. “I love to see myself in different kinds of avatars and challenge myself as an actress," Koel Mallick said. "However, it depends a lot on the directors and the scriptwriters and the way they sketch the characters.”

Mallick thanked her lucky stars for getting offers to play unique characters in 2019. “For the first time, I got the opportunity to play a female detective who is also a responsible housewife and has multiple layers to her. I immensely enjoyed enacting Mitin Mashi and my happiness got doubled when I received positive response from the audience for the hard work I invested in it," she said.

Appearing in a family film adds to Mallick's happiness. “I am extremely happy to anticipate that my film will be enjoyed by kids," she said. "I am quite sure the film will be enjoyed by children and adults alike. The film has been made on a grand scale and each moment of the film is going to take the audience on an adventure ride. I appreciated Jawker Dhan and was happy with its success. However, I feel immense pleasure to be a part of its second instalment as I never anticipated this."

In the film, Ruby Chatterjee is not keen on adventure; however, she cannot give in until she gets close to the rare chemical she is hunting for. Mallick said that much like her character, she is not quite adventurous in real life too. “I love to watch adventure films or read adventure stories. Personally, I am quite laidback. However, while shooting for the film, I had to get into many situations which I would perhaps like to avoid in normal circumstances,” she said.

Mallick narrated her experience of getting into the reality of a make-believe world that is projected on screen. “We were shooting at a no-man’s island and there were clear restrictions on the schedule," she recalled. "We were supposed to shoot till a certain time and had to travel back by boat to the mainland. But we forgot the schedule and when pack-up was finally announced, the people who were supposed to take us back conveyed that they would not be able to come to pick us up. I started praying as I couldn’t believe I could actually be in such a scary situation. We eventually managed to procure a boat and travel back ourselves.”

While she did go through some scary situations, the actress is grateful for the experiences she had while shooting in some remote locations in Thailand.

She also spoke of the delightful experience of working with Ghosal for the first time. "He is the most soft-spoken director I have come across," she said. "Sometimes, I used to miss his cues. He is multi-talented [and] an extremely good director and editor. He understands the area of graphics well."

Mallick and Parambrata Chatterjee will be seen together in a movie after five years, since they starred in Highway (2014). "No matter how long the gap since I worked with Param, I feel as if it was only a few days ago because of the warmth and affection I receive from him," she said. "We get along very well on the sets. He has immense knowledge of films and hence each of our adda sessions would be filled with fun discussions." The actress will play the female lead in Chatterjee’s next directorial venture Bony.