Indrasis Acharya on Niharika: People are duped in the name of cerebral cinema in Bengal

Known to be a serious filmmaker, Indrasis Acharya takes his own time to make a film. By his admission, neither can he plan and execute ‘four films in a year’, nor can he manage to get producers as often. 

Indrasis took more than two years and a number of crowdfunding drives to finally make Niharika, which features Anuradha Mukherjee, Silajit Majumder, and Anindya Sengupta and will release on July 21. The film has already received accolades at different national and international film festivals. Niharika’s world premiere took place at Adelaide Film Festival. It then competed at Hanoi International Film Festival. In India, it had its national premiere at the International Film Festival of Kerala.

Talking about the film, Indrasis said, “It is a journey of a woman, who has a dark and abusive childhood. In pursuit of seeking solace, she develops a relationship with a nurse. Later, when her mother passes away, she goes to her maternal uncle’s family in Simultala. It was her exposure to a wider landscape from the dingle Kolkata she grew up in. She gets sexually attracted to her maternal uncle. What happens throughout her journey is captured in the film.” 

Indrasis admitted that it is a complex journey of a young woman and it is not a ‘run of the mill’ narration. “Human emotions are often complex and so in the journey of this woman. It is told in a very simple manner. People are duped in the name of cerebral cinema in Bengal. But I believe our audience likes to watch critical films,” he said.

Meanwhile, Niharika will release along with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. How will he compete with this big Hollywood release? “Forget Hollywood, an independent Bengali film barely gets the resource to promote their films. We can’t compete even with big-budget Bengali films because we don’t get funds for marketing and promotions. There is a celebration happening around Oppenheimer. I will simply say, ‘Oppenheimer will stay for a while. Watch Niharika before you watch Oppenheimer. You will not be let down,” said Indrasis.