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‘Uma’: Interesting facts about the Srijit Mukherji film you should know

Srijit Mukherji’s films have the tradition to break box office records and achieve new milestones. To add a cherry on top of it, Bengali music lovers are offered some dulcet tunes that stay in our hearts for a long while. His next ‘Uma’, releasing on June 1, is actually no exception to this tradition. Here are some interesting facts you should know before watching the film.

Touted to be Srijit’s most ambitious project ever, ‘Uma’ has been inspired by the story of Canadian boy Evan Leversage, who died of cancer in 2015. Leversage came to be known as ‘The Boy Who Moved Christmas’ when his hometown celebrated Christmas, two months in advance, to make sure the little boy could see the festival before death. Nicole Wellwood was initially sceptical about ‘Uma’ when Srijit Mukherji approached her, as she was then still recovering from the shock of her son’s death (Leversage died on 6 December 2015). Later in an interview, the grieved mother added she believed in Srijit and was literally convinced.

Jisshu Sengupta’s daughter Sara is making her big screen debut with this Srijit Mukherji directorial and the director himself recently revealed he has created the vibrant character of Uma only keeping in mind Sara. The same thing happened with Prosenjit Chatterjee’s character in 2010. He also admitted Sara is the perfect girl to play Uma and he couldn’t have done the film without her. Srijit believes Uma’s story will resonate the symbolisation of hope along with the power of unity.

Srijit came to Jisshu Sengupta’s home around 12.30 one night and said he wants Sara to play the lead in his upcoming film. Initially, Jisshu and Nilanjana rejected the offer straight away. But then Sara woke up from her sleep and came to Srijit asking what he was doing at that time. The director who is close to the Sengupta family smiled and said now it is a waste of time to ask the parents. Srijit Mukherji then asked Sara to decide whether she wants to work in ‘Uma’ and we all know what happened next.

Jisshu Sengupta’s younger daughter Zara also plays a key role in ‘Uma’. Zara has been cast as the little Uma. You can even see a few glimpses of Zara in the trailer as well. It came as a big surprise when a proud father Jisshu took to his Twitter handle recently to reveal the news. Ahead of its release, ‘Uma’ has already created a lot of buzz. Be it the emotional trailer or soul-stirring music, the film has grabbed attention for every good reason.

While shooting for ‘Uma’, Jisshu Sengupta had to deal with a difficult time on the sets. The popular actor has admitted watching his own daughter Sara playing a terminally ill child wasn’t easy for a father. Not only Jisshu, even co-actors Anjan Dutt, Srabanti, Sayantika, Anirban Bhattacharya too allegedly felt a tremendous emotional pang when playing their part. However, Sara is quite confident and chilled out ahead of her debut movie. Playing the lead in her first film wasn’t too difficult for her. Whenever she felt the dialogues are difficult, she used to change it keeping the meaning intact. She had the permission to improvise.

Anjan Dutt will essay out the role of Brahmananda Chakraborty, a struggling filmmaker, who has been given a challenging task to recreate Durga Puja in June, long before its usual time in September-October. While speaking about his role, the actor has said the role he is playing in ‘Uma’ has an interesting resemblance to what he himself faced in his life. Much like the ‘Uma’ story, a lot of people reached to him in difficult times and encouraged to bounce back as a singer-songwriter and eventually become a filmmaker. Even at 64, he has the same energy like his early days to try something new.

Srijit Mukherji’s directorial debut in Bollywood, ‘Begum Jaan’ was made under the banner of Mahesh Bhatt. Although the Hindi version of the film didn’t enjoy huge success like its Bengali counterpart, the veteran filmmaker cum producer is quite impressed by Srijit’s brave initiative to make a film like ‘Uma’. Mahesh Bhatt took to his Twitter handle to appreciate the hard work Srijit has done for his upcoming film. “Srijit Mukherjee’s UMA passionately echoes this ‘truth’,” tweeted Bhatt…… Click here to read the full story