Tribute paid to Soumitra Chatterjee at Feluda Pherot trailer launch event

The much-anticipated trailers of Srijit Mukherji’s upcoming series Feluda Pherot were launched in the presence of the director, actors Tota Roy Chowdhury and Anirban Chakrabarti, music composer Joy Sarkar and the managing director of Addatimes, Rajiv Mehra, on 21 November at Park Hotel, Kolkata.

Sourav Ganguly, the former national cricket team captain and the current president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was the chief guest at the event while Sabyasachi Chakraborty — who essayed the role of the detective in Sandip Ray’s adaptations that came after his father's two Feluda films, which starred the late Soumitra Chatterjee — was also present.

The event was inaugurated with an audio-visual tribute to Chatterjee. Later, at the end of the event, both Chakraborty and Ganguly were gifted photographs with the legendary actor, who died a few days ago after a valiant battle with COVID-19.

Mukherji’s Feluda Pherot was originally conceptualised as a play more than a decade ago. Interestingly, Chakraborty, who played the sleuth on multiple platforms, was approached by Mukherji to act in the play that was staged in Bangalore. However, Chakraborty was unable to participate as he was required to rehearse for the play for 15 days in Bangalore.

“I went to Benu Da (Chakraborty) because I could not think of anyone else then. Even when you think of the different renditions of Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot, some performances get deeply etched in the mind and I too could only visualise Benu Da for the role,” said Mukherji. Chakraborty has been playing the role of Feluda on the radio for many years.

Feluda Pherot features Roy Chowdhury as the titular detective, Kalpan Mitra as Topse and Chakrabarti as Jatayu. After recounting his own experiences playing the iconic character for so many years, Chakraborty wished Roy Chowdhury, saying, “I am sure Tota will come out with flying colours.”

Stating that he was aware of Roy Chowdhury's potential from the very beginning, the veteran actor added, "He told me that I have helped him in his portrayal of the sleuth. But I think it's just the opposite and I feel that he helped me turn into Feluda in Tintorettor Jishu (2008). It wouldn’t be possible without him.”

Chakraborty also applauded Chakrabarti and called him “brave” for attempting to portray Jatayu as Satyajit Ray himself stopped making Feluda films after Santosh Dutta, who played the character, died and he could not envision any other actor taking up the role. Chakraborty also shared how Bibhu Bhattacharya, who played Jatayu in Sandip Ray’s adaptations, was terrified to play the character as many acting legends, including Rabi Ghosh, was not well received by fans. “However, I wish Anirban all the best, and I am sure he will not care two hoots regarding what others think,” added Chakraborty.

Anirban agreed with Chakraborty and said, “I didn’t want to tread the path of what had already been done because I knew if I wanted to burden myself with expectations set by the legends, I wouldn’t be able to perform. Rather, the excitement and honour of participating in such a project pushed me to work with a lot of joy.”

A few years before, Addatimes streamed another Feluda web-series directed by Parambrata Chatterjee, in which, the helmer himself played the sleuth and Riddhi Sen played Topse. “Parambrata did a good job in presenting a rather modern adaptation of Feluda, but I guess the audience was not prepared for it,” said Mehra.

“To be honest, when were considering working on Feluda again, we did not think of working with Srijit. He happened to be in the discussions and jumped at the idea of bringing Feluda to the web medium again,” said Mehra, who is thinks that this the project will mark a milestone for Addatimes. He also thanked Nispal Singh Rane of Surinder Films for taking the leap to bring Feluda to a web platform.

Meanwhile, Mukherji expressed his gratitude towards Addatimes for not compromising on the making of the series.