Is Anirban Bhattacharya Bengali cinema’s white knight?

Anirban Bhattacharya is in a rare position in the Bengali film industry: his pet projects not only get greenlit, but he also has creative control over them. One of Kolkata’s most exciting talents has worked across cinema, theatre and music. The buzz surrounding his latest movie has as much to do with him as the subject itself.

Athhoi, scheduled for a June 14 release, is a screen adaptation of the superhit play of the same name, which in turn is based on William Shakespeare’s Othello. The SVF-Jio Studios production has been written and directed by Arna Mukhopadhyay, with Bhattacharya serving as creative director. Mukhopadhyay plays Othello/Athhoi, Bhattacharya Iago/Gogo and Sohini Sarkar Desdemona/Diya.

Shakespeare is a recurring factor in Bhattacharya’s career. His first notable film role was in Aparna Sen’s Romeo and Juliet adaptation Arshinagar (2015).

Bhattacharya’s early acclaim accrued from theatre. The 37-year-old Midnapore native acted in as well as directed a string of plays starting in 2005. Bhattacharya’s popularity peaked during the coronavirus pandemic. This period saw Mandaar, a series adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth that Bhattacharya co-created and directed for the Hoichoi streaming platform.

In 2022, Bhattacharya’s directorial feature debut Ballabhpurer Rupkotha, a supernatural fantasy based on a Badal Sircar play, was a hit. In 2023, he was creative director for the eighth season of...

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