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History revisited and recreated through stunning animation in Bengali film ‘Durgeshgorer Guptodhon’

Animation has created a stir all over the country and the sector is growing with every passing day and by 2021, the sector is expected to reach a size of Rs. 24.4 billion. This medium is also becoming quite prominent in the regional space.

Recently, Bengali feature film Durgeshgorer Guptodhon depicted the rich history of Bengal through beautiful animation at the beginning, to set the tone of the film. The animated clip narrates the times before and after the Battle of Plassey (1757) where Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah lost to Robert Clive and his army, after being betrayed by the commander of his army, Mir Jafar. The clip focuses on the role of Raja Krishnachandra Roy, (the zamindar of Krishnanagar, Nadia, West Bengal from 1728 to 1782) who supported his friend Jagat Seth to gang up against the Nawab and got a lot of wealth in return, around which the treasure hunt is based upon.

Talking to AnimationXpress about the ideation process to blend history and fiction through animation, director Dhrubo Banerjee mentioned, “As a child my father used to buy me Amar Chitra Katha. I grew up with those illustrations. That was the beginning of my love with history and illustrations. When I decided to create the first ever treasure hunt franchise in Bengal – Guptodhoner Sandhane and then Durgeshgorer Guptodhon, with a focussed approach of combining history of Bengal with its culture and heritage, an acceptable narrative was necessary to address a eight to 80 audience base. Animation was a natural choice in that respect. My six years of experience as the creative director at Reliance Animation also had a role to play. To create an engrossing title narrative where we explain the history as the premise of the story without getting into the cost and production nitigrities of shooting it in live action was also a key factor.”

Durgeshgorer Guptodhon in its quest for real treasure also unearths hidden treasures of Bengal related to its history, culture and heritage. For the team, it was a conscious decision to use the 2D format of illustration style which naturally lends its form into 2D animation. The style lends an old age charm and transports us into the era.

Banerjee added, “An in-depth research on the historic episode of Bengal we were going to depict had to be in place first. A good script was a must. It had to be simple yet informative enough to engross a large audience spectrum. In regional format, time and cost are two very important considerations. So we had to consider an animation format that will be extremely simplified yet impactful…Click here to read the full story