Soukarya Ghosal's upcoming film Kalaantar is based on the 1905 partition of Bengal

Filmmaker Soukarya Ghosal has announced his historical film Kalaantar (2022), starring Jaya Ahsan, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Riddhi Sen, Kaushik Sen and Surangana Bandopadhyay.

Based on the revolutionary resistance that compelled the viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, to reverse the partition of Bengal that he had announced in 1905, the film has been written by Ghosal’s wife Pooja Chatterjee with Priyak Mitra.

In the film, Jaya Ahsan and Riddhi Sen will be seen in the character of freedom fighters. Roy Sanyal will be essaying the role of a police inspector, while Bandopadhyay will be seen as a spy working for the revolutionaries.

The story of Kalaantar has been woven with both historical and fictional characters. New faces will be cast in the characters of Aurobindo Ghose and Jatindranath Mukhopadhyay, better known as Bagha Jatin, pioneers of the armed struggle against the colonizers.

In order to create the screenplay, the director and the writers have reportedly done thorough research on the particular period for a year and a half. “I am a student of history and hence could not allow any factual mistakes while conceptualizing the film,” Ghosal told Anandaplus, the entertainment supplement of Anandabazar Patrika, a leading Bengali daily.

“When the British declared the partition, Jugantar, the secret operational association of the independence activists, rebelled. In Bengal, an armed struggle started under Aurobindo Ghose’s leadership. My film will try to capture that period of unrest,” the maker of films like Rainbow Jelly (2018) and Rawkto Rawhoshyo (2020) added.

Meanwhile, Ghosal has another completed project, Bhoot Pori (2022), waiting for release.