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Exclusive! Prosenjit Chatterjee on KIFF: I saw Revathi and Kamal Haasan running from one show to another to watch a good film here

The actor talked about his memories of the Kolkata International Film Festival

Exclusive! Prosenjit Chatterjee on KIFF: I saw Revathi and Kamal Haasan running from one show to another to watch a good film here
Prosenjit Chatterjee

Last Updated: 01.16 PM, Dec 18, 2022

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The 28th Kolkata International Film Festival is in full swing. The festival started with a gala at Netaji Indore Stadium on December 15 and since then films from across the world are being screened at 10 different auditoriums, including Nandan, Rabindra Sadan, and Nazrul Tirtha, across the city. This year, to pay tribute to Amitabh Bachchan on his 80th birth year celebration, an exhibition – Amitabh Bachchan: A Living Legend – is hosted at Gaganendra Pradarshanshala. Along with Jaya Bachchan, Prosenjit Chatterjee inaugurated the exhibition. “I have a very emotional connection with Amitabh Bachchan, just like I had with Soumitra Chatterjee. Jayadi (Bachchan) is like a family. I am not a star in front of her,” he said. 

Prosenjit, who also worked as the chairman of the KIFF committee, remembers his association with the festival. In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, the Bengali superstar talks about his young days, the effort the KIFF committee puts in, and how this festival helps to create a new set of audience. Read on…  

Talking about his enthusiasm for the festival, Prosenjit said, “What happened at Netaji Indore Stadium on December 15 was an inauguration event. The real opening of the film festival for us is when we get to see the films – just a day after the inauguration when the first show of a film takes place at Nandan. Approximately 28 years ago – when I was about 15 years old in the industry – we used to work three shifts. We used to ditch those work hours and watch films at the festival. There were days when I sat on the Nandan I floor to watch films. I saw Revathi, Kamal Haasan, and others running from one auditorium to another to catch a good film at the Kolkata festival. Tapas (Paul), Debashree Roy, and I – we all used to do the same thing – finish one screening and used to run for another. We used to be a part of the crowd.”

Prosenjit also pointed out the reason behind that madness. “During that time, there was not much scope to watch good cinema. Today there were other ways to watch a good film. There is OTT, this, and that. During that time, I did not miss any show of films by good directors. We used to use our stardom at our respective production houses to get that time off to watch films here,” he said.

Prosenjit also expressed his happiness over the enthusiasm of Kolkata’s cine lovers. “This queue and this craze to watch films are only possible in Kolkata because no other city in India has this kind of film enthusiast. Kolkata has a heritage of celebrating cultural extravaganza. My team members tell me that I get refreshed after my festival visit. I feel good here and that is because it reminds me of my younger days,” he said. 

In 2022, two chapters of KIFF – took place in Kolkata. In April, the 27th KIFF took place before the 28th edition in December. This happened due to the pandemic. In an effort to regularise the festival calendar, the festival took place in December. As a veteran member of the committee, Prosenjit lauded the effort of the organisers. This year, under the leadership of Raj (Chakraborty) and Mitra (Chatterjee), their team deserves applause, especially because they hosted two film festivals in the same year. It demands courage. I worked with them I know how efficient they are. It involves hard work,” the actor said. 

Prosenjit also pointed out that this festival, and the Nandan audience in general, are evolved and they understand their films. “There are two types of film audiences – regular audiences and festival audiences. The festival audiences are anyway more aware and evolved. In fact, Nandan plays a crucial role in regular films as well. Good films run better in Nandan. Take Dostojee for example. It ran very successfully here in Nandan. Kaushik Ganguly’s Lokkhi Chhele did very good business in Nandan. In West Bengal, we need 10 more Nandan-like auditoriums for the betterment of the Bengali cinema,” he said.  

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