While Rajit Kapur found it daunting to play detective Byomkesh Bakshi for a teleseries in 1993 because there was no graphical representation or research to fall back on, Sushant Singh Rajput found it an uphill task to walk like a Bengali would in the 40s and the fact that he had to shun technology while shooting the film Detective Byomkesh Bakshi. DEEBASHREE MOHANTY talks to the actors to find out what pulled them to this complex character
Rajit Kapur
The 54-year-old actor has time to breathe only at 10 pm on a weekday and that is the only time he is free for any interaction — “I like to keep busy. Boredom will kill me otherwise,” Kapur, who symbolises Byomkesh Bakshi, says. He is busy with an upcoming play which is a satire on the urbane life in the metropolis but when the talk is about detectivegiri, he is keen to answer our queries. “We shot the entire series of Byomkesh Bakshi for Doodarshan in six months. It was like doing a film and even though the series ended on TV, I found it difficult to detach from the character. There is still a little bit of Byomkesh in me,” the National Award Winner for his titular role in Gandhi, says.
Over sips of coffee and a working man’s breakfast on a busy day, Kapur recalls his fondest Byomkesh memories — “It’s like a blast from the past but the details are clearly etched in my mind. I still remember my first dialogue for the first series way back in 1993. Such was the passion. I find it missing in today’s youth and filmmakers,” the seasoned actor, who has proved his mettle across mediums, says.
When he was given the task to play this quirky detective, Kapur was completely at sea. At that time, there was no pictorial graphic to fall back upon, nor was there any documentation that would give an insight to the behaviourism of the detective based in Calcutta. “Basu Chatterjee, the director told me to play Byomkesh sans any frills or made-up mannerisms. He was supposed to be a simple man with a mind of his own. Once I had that clear in my head, it was a cakewalk to play Byomkesh. Simplicity was a key then and that is what appealed to the masses. A flamboyant detective would have been a total flop,” Kapur insists.
“If you are super intelligent doesn’t mean you have a swagger or are extra agile. You just need to be perceptive and a good judge of the situation and this can be achieved with simple facial expressions too,” he says. This is what helped him through his journey as detective Byomkesh. Ask him whether it is essential for a detective to be quirky and display odd social behaviour a la Sherlock Holmes in the popular TV series and Kapur bursts out laughing. “That’s too much of dramatisation. No, it is not a prerequisite. It is just there to add a pinch of glamour to the character,” he tells you.
There was a time when Kapur’s Byomkesh was called the Indian response to Sherlock Holmes who was becoming a household name in the UK. Although Kapur doesn’t take any credit for that himself, he tells you that the way Byomkesh was conceptualised in the novel was genuine and the way Chatterjee transformed that to TV was exceptional.
“There were a lot of similarities drawn at that time and it made me feel proud. But the person behind the character of Byomkesh must be lauded first,” he tells you. “Byomkesh gave me an unbelievable platform. A lot of people still address me by that name. I have had my share of fan mails and awry telephone calls. At one point, I hired an assistant to open letters and revert to some of them. I became a face to reckon with. There are offers pouring in,” he says. A month into the show, Kapur tells you that he would receive calls requesting him to solve a personal case. And no matter how many times he repeated that he was only an actor, the person would insist that the case be taken up by none other than Byomkesh Bakshi himself!
“It is funny and touching. Two men were following me on the street one day. I asked them what they were upto. ‘We wanted to see how you solve a particular case Mr Byomkesh’ — they said plainly. There was a time when chemists would shut their shop and rush home to catch an episode of the series. On one such occassion, a chemist refused to give me pills because he didn’t want to miss my serial,” he recalls.
Did it worry him that he would get typecastIJ “When the role is such a tremendous one, it matters little. Having said that, I haven’t really been typecast,” he says, adding that although he has been in this industry for 30 years, it is live performance on the stage that sets the tempo for him. Now, when a film is being made of the first story from Saradindu Chatterjee’s novel on Byomkesh Bakshi, Kapur is surprised that this had not been attempted in B-wood before. “It beats me. You have many fantastic whodunnit novels and thrillers in the West, but there has been none made in India in the last decade.
“The detective genre is a good one to explore as it appeals to everyone. We have the wherewithal to come up with original ideas. But we have become so lackadaisical that experimenting is not our cup of tea anymore,” he says. According to him, Dibakar Banerjee is best suited to take up a strong subject like this and give it his own twist. “He is one of the most versatile filmmakers I have seen in Bollywood. There are very few in this industry who are willing to take risks and he is one among them. He is bang on with the casting. Sushant has a raw appeal and a learner’s attitude,” Kapur, who was last seen in a cameo in Roy tells you.
“Very little scripts interest me nowadays. Either they are half-baked or there is no planning that has gone into it. I cannot take up such offers,” he says. Does he plan to watch Dibakar’s interpretation of Byomkesh — “Of course. It is high time Byomkesh makes a comeback,” he concludes.
Sushant Singh Rajput
Sushant Singh Rajput maybe only three films old but his cool demeanour and maturity is already the talk of the town. The actor went missing from the scene as soon as his latest offering, Detective Byomkesh Bakshi went on the floor and Rajput says it was a calculated risk — “It is a detective thriller. You need to create a mysterious ambience around it, so, I had to do the disappearing act,” he says, over the phone from Mumbai. Now that he is back promoting his film ahead of a worldwide release on April 3, the Kai Po Chhe actor is all gung-ho about this particular role.
“Every actor cherishes a dream to play a detective solving a crime. I am no different. I have worked very hard for this one and I just hope it pays off,” he tells you, not willing to divulge the plot yet. Detective Byomkesh Bakshi is set in the pre-Independence era of India in the hub of all nationalism activities — Kolkata.
“Dibakar Banerjee has selected the best backdrop possible for this whodunnit thriller. Kolkata was brimming with nationalist energy and a lot of things were happening around the Independence moment. Enter the suave and slightly quirky Byomkesh and he lands up on a plumb case. The setting along with the characterisation is what sets the tone for this film,” Rajput, who stayed in Kolkata for six months to just get the feel of the place, tells you.
He went for walks in the secluded parts of town, mingled with localites and spoke with a lot of people who were fans of detective Byomkesh Bakshi. “We met some people who were around in the 40s and learnt a lot about Calcutta from them. I made it a point to avoid areas where people would recognise me as an actor. The motive was to do a lot of behind the camera research and it was essential that I kept myself hidden from the paparazzis. This was one of the challenges while shooting for this period film,” he says.
Ask him about other challenges and he says there were plenty to begin with but once he got into the skin of the character, everything went along smoothly. “My first task was to learn how to walk like a Bengali in the 40s. It was a harrowing task because Dibakar would not let me walk my natural way at all. The other difficult part was to be alienated from technology. I did not use my smartphone during the shooting of the film to get used to the times back then. It was scary,” he adds.
Getting the Bengali accent, though was never an issue with this Gujarati born. “As an actor, one needs to have the power to convince his audience that he is speaking chaste Bengali and in the correct accent. There is a dialogue in the film where Byomkesh makes this amply clear,” Rajput says. There is a lot of effort that has gone into the making of this film and he justifies the time spent, saying a detective thriller needs everything to be in order. “It’s not the usual song and dance movie. Author Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay has sketched a powerful Byomkesh Bakshi and it was an imperative to do justice to the character. Any flaw would attract a lot of negative comments because Byomkesh was a loved soul,” Rajput says, insisting that they were treading on a very slim line for this particular film.
He has grown up watching detective cinema and serials but he needed to unlearn them in order to bring out the original Byomkesh in him. It was not an easy task for him to forget how popular characters had played Byomkesh in their heydays but he did it beautifully. Being a budding director himself, Rajput says he understood where Dibakar was coming from. “He gave me a lot of freedom to interpret this role the way I wanted to. Dibakar is one of those directors who will explain the plot once and expect you to put in your mind behind it and come up with something unique. I like that about him. He was extremely particular that I don’t ape any actor in his representation of the popular detective. I am glad I could do it,” he says.
Rajput who is known to be a method actor by many in the industry tells you that it is a method that makes great actors. “There has to be a proper method for doing all things. Even when you are eating, you are following a method, aren’t youIJ,” he jokes. As for this movie, his method was simple — read the script many times to understand what the case was, research on mannerisms of people from that time period and pursue the role with a lot of heart. “Jo cheez dil se nahin kiya jata hai, usme mazza bhi kaam aata hai,” he tells you.
Why is there a dearth of detective thrillers on the Indian screensIJ “We have the talent to make the best of thrillers. We have seen that in the 70s and 80s. But suddenly whodunnit movies have taken a backseat. Maybe because there is a dearth of original ideas. Kahani and Talaash managed to pick up the tempo a bit and with Detective Byomkesh Bakshi we are hoping to re-start the trend. This genre has a lot of scope for filmmakers and actors because a thriller will always have an audience,” Rajput tells you.
Though he has watched some of Rajit Kapur’s portrayal of Byomkesh in the series on Doordarshan, Rajput says he is not qualified enough to comment on a veteran actor. “You cannot compare the two Byomkeshs. One was made for small screen viewing at a time when resources were limited. I am lucky that I had a lot of tech and research support to carry Detective Byomkesh,” he says.
