Exclusive! Tathagata Mukherjee on Bhotbhoti: Fantasy meets revolution in my film

After years of deliberation, actor-director Tathagata Mukherjee’s fantasy film Bhotbhoti hit the theatres on August 11. The film that features Rishabh Basu, Bibriti Chatterjee, Anirban Chakrabarti and others is a modern-day fairytale-love story that blends fiction with reality in a story of a man.

The film narrates the story of a young man Bhotbhoti lives in a slum near Ganga ghat. He is obsessed with the belief that there’s a mermaid in the river and his fantasy turns real when he meets the mermaid Ariel.

 Elaborating the concept, Tathagata said, “Bhotbhoti is a love story between water and fire. Rishav plays Bhotbhoti, water, and Bibriti plays fire, mermaid. According to Greek mythology, mermaids are dangerous. They used to get on a rock in the middle of an ocean and used to hum some tunes to distract sailors and kill them. However, Walt Disney made mermaids beautiful in his films. We conceived the beauty of the mermaid in our film. Mermaid represents fire and revolution. Two things always remain relevant in every country in the world – fairy tales and revolution. No civilisation is without any fairy tale. And no country is devoid of a history of revolution. I think it is two sides of the same coin. Bhotbhoti is a contemporary fantasy tale. Like its traditional counterpart, there are two sides – evil and good – and in between there lies a pool of innocent people. ”

Elaborating on the use of fairytale-like narration, Tathagata said, “Fairy tales are written when human beings are at peace and stable. The tales express the well-being of the community. This is fantasy. When people have ripped off their rights, there is a revolution. Both of these occur in extreme conditions. Bhotbhoti talks about these extreme conditions. I think fantasy and revolution walk hands in hand.”