Exclusive! Abir Chatterjee on Badami Hyenar Kobole: Was comfortable taking a dig at detective characters as most of them are aimed at me

After playing Byomkesh Bakshi, Sonada and Feluda – Abir Chatterjee is now Dipak Chatterjee in Debaloy Bhattacharya’s Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole. By his admission, the actor did not expect much reaction from the audience for the film. “I thought it would go unnoticed,” he told us. In reality, Debaloy’s tribute to Bengali pulp fiction has become a hot topic of discussion on social media. In a chat with OTTplay, Abir talked about his journey in this unique film. 

Elaborating on the reason for saying yes to Debaloy’s offer, Abir said that it was largely because his character is ‘every bit opposite’ from the characters he is famous for. “I was worried a little. Not because the character is different from what I usually play. Rather I agreed to do the film because it stands opposite to what I usually do. I was worried about the making and the finished product. We have not seen anything like this before,” he said. 

Also read: Exclusive! Debaloy Bhattacharya: Abir Chatterjee is the one carrying the Bengali celebrity detectives’ baggage. He is the best person to contradict it 

In fact, Abir claimed that he could understand Dipak Chatterjee in no time. “When I was listening to the script, I just knew Dipak Chatterjee’s sentiment and where he comes from. I could understand his emotion. I understood him not because I played a lot of detective characters. I just felt him. I did not read Swapan Kumar. I simply depended on my director. That’s how I prepared and worked in the film.” the actor further added, “This is not the first time I am playing a character of a cynical, looser. Incidentally, the celebrated characters became more successful, and hence, people remembered those characters. I took no time in understanding Dipak Chatterjee.”  

Also read: Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole review: Debaloy Bhattacharya delivers magic on screen 

From the beginning of the film, Abir had a number of suggestions for the director. While some of them are just between Debaloy and Abir, there were some pertinent. “I believed that there should be some sort of logic behind the illogical things that go on in the film so that the audience would get some explanation of what’s going on. Secondly, and this is something I learned during Biday Byomkesh, the viewers have zero responsibility in drawing an inference in the end. Wil will have to offer the solution and knot all the loose ends. Then we can leave it to the audience for different interpretations. If we can’t join the dots by the end then either we are expecting the audience to be super genius or we don’t know the answer. That can’t be. So I asked Debaloy not to leave any loose ends untied.” 

The shooting of the film took place in July-August last year. According to several members of SSBHK, there has been a lot of improvisation. “Yes, there were improvisations and Debaloy had the whole thing in his head. There were times when I could not understand what I was shooting. However, I trusted my director,” Abir said.  

Through SSBHK, Dipak Chatterjee takes a dig at popular mainstream detectives like Feluda, Byomkesh, and so on. Does that make Abir any uncomfortable? “Far from it. I was comfortable taking a dig at detective characters as most of them were aimed at me. Meanwhile, I named two other detective characters that were not played by me. I am sorry if the makers or the actors are hurt. Evidently, it wasn’t personal at all,” he said. Apart from the hints at Byomkesh, Feluda, and Sonada, there is a mention of Eken Babu and Mitin Mashi. Now, Anirban Chakrabarti, who plays Eken Babu, lauded the film on social media. Abir called it Anirban’s ‘graciousness’.        

Ever since its release on January 12, the film has received critical appreciation. “I did not expect that there would be discourses around SSBHK. Honestly. I thought this film would be completely ignored. However, I told my team that either people would slam the film saying it is rubbish or they would be in awe of the film. I knew the reactions would go extreme,” he said. 

Earlier, Abir suggested that he would not be playing Byomkesh Bakshi anymore. Talking about this, he said, “I have been asking the makers to give me a break from Byomkesh since 2018. However, in 2022, after two years of lockdown, a Byomkesh was consciously made to draw the audience to the theatres. It served its purpose. If you ask me today, I would say I don’t know if I would like to play Byomkesh again. I have no plan at all. However, finally, it is the producers’ call,” he signed off.