Feluda Onscreen smoking to portray Feluda was challenging for me: Tota Roy Choudhury
Kolkata/IBNS: Fitness freak Indian actor Tota Roy Choudhury, who is Srijit Mukherji's Feluda in his upcoming hoichoi web series Feludar Goyendagiri, found onscreen smoking "challenging" to portray the iconic detective character.
Speaking to IBNS exclusively, Roy Choudhury says, "The smoking part was very challenging. In fact for a non-smoker, smoking like a seasoned smoker is excruciating but I had to do that because I was playing the role of Feluda."
"So I probably had to smoke around 22-25 cigarettes a day and that too the filterless version of it. But on the very last day, I stopped smoking after hearing the last "cut" and "pack up" (laughs)," he adds.
Roy Choudhury, whose major breakthrough came with the films of late filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh, shared with IBNS how he balances preparations and improvisation on the set to get going.
"The preparations should be there definitely. I should know my script inside out but on the other hand, there has to be a certain leeway for improvisation which we all have to do keeping in mind the situations or adverse situations which arise sometimes on the sets.
"So we will have to take that in our stride. Our preparation can't be casting stone so yes a bit of both," he says.
Mukherji, a popular Bengali film director working for more than a decade, announced the new web series on the occasion of Ray's 101st birth anniversary Monday.
Calling the series "a dream" to make, Mukherji says, "Amid a lot of struggle, we have been able to complete Feludar Goyendagiri. This film is an integral part of our life. Feluda can never get old and it always remains evergreen.
"I have already said that I remain the happiest while shooting Feluda. No negativity can touch me while I shoot Feluda."
(From L to R) Joy Sarkar, Kalpan Mitra, Tota Roy Choudhury, Anirban Chakrabarti and Srijit Mukherji | Image Credit: Avishek Mitra/IBNS
Actor Anirban Chakrabarti will be essaying Feluda's accompaniment Lalmohan Ganguly alias Jatayu, who was immortalised onscreen by the late Santosh Dutta.
Slipping into the role, Chakrabarti tells IBNS, "The experience of working with Srijit and in Feluda is overwhelming. Actually it's a matter of pride to be associated with this project anyway."
Kalpan Mitra, Tota Roy Choudhury and Anirban Chakrabarti | Image Credit: Avishek Mitra/IBNS
"I am actually very much happy and had a very nice working equation with Srijit because it's my fifth film with him," he adds.
Kalpan Mitra will be featuring in Feluda's assistant Topse's role in Mukherji's upcoming series.
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