Exclusive! Soukarya Ghosal on Bhootpori: We talk about women’s rights- and artistes’ rights. What about children’s rights?

Soukarya Ghosal’s recently released film Bhootpori is magical. With Jaya Ahsan, Bishantak Mukherjee, and Ritwick Chakraborty in the lead, the film was released on February 9. Following his own style, Soukarya brings a super smart young actor Bishantak, who plays Surjo – the protagonist. And then garnishes the plot with fantasy. in a chat with OTTplay, the director talks about the film and his love for children’s perspective. 

Bhootpori is about ghost-human relationship

Soukarya claims that the Western idea of ghosts being ‘satanic’ does not always fit in the Indian, especially Bengali, context. “In our literature, we see friendly chats between ghosts and humans. In films, however, this flavour is not always brought in. In Bhootpori, the ghost behaves like us and hence they connect with humans easily. We usually see how ghosts affect human lives. Here it is just the opposite – how humans affect ghost’s life,” he said. 

Also read: Bhootpori review: Ghostly Jaya Ahsan, curious Bishantak and mysterious Ritwick Chakraborty make the film a magical watch 

Giving children a voice

Most of Soukarya’s films are often seen from a child’s perspective. After Pendulum and Rainbow Jelly, Bhootpori is also a perfect example of his trait. Talking about it, he said, “When we raise our voices, we talk about the rights of artistes and rights of women. But we hardly think about the children’s rights. We often take children for granted. I always asked myself why shouldn’t a child lead the narration. Why shouldn’t we try to make a film from children’s gaze? Hence, it has been a conscious decision to make films from their POV. Like many other directors in the world, I am also deeply influenced by Satyajit Ray. I always feel that his films are often seen from children’s perspective. I love the idea.”

Also read: Exclusive! Bhootpori actress Jaya Ahsan: Seeing Rubelbhai passing away right in front of us will leave a permanent trauma in my mind 

Soukarya on Jaya Ahsan

In her interview, Jaya Ahsan said that Soukarya contacted her through social media for the film. Soukarya had Jaya in mind while developing the story. Talking about working with Jaya, he said, “Her bravery is a revelation for me. We all know that she is a great actress. I have seen her courage and commitment while shooting Bhootpari. We were shooting in a place that was infested with snakes. Jaya never thought twice before running barefoot or falling on the ground and so on. We had a lot of nighttime shootings and she was always ready. We all were amazed,” he said. 

Bhootpori was shot years ago and by now, Soukartya has made two more films – OCD and Kalantar. He teamed up with Anirban Bhattacharya for his next, Pokkhirajer Dim. The film is a squeal of Rainbow Jelly. He is busy with the postproduction of the film.