SVF

WB–WRITERS-FILM

‘Operation Writers’ on sacrifice of freedom fighters: Dutt Kolkata, Jan 27 (PTI) Director Anjan Dutt says his upcoming film ‘Operation Writers’ on the exploits of Benoy, Badal and Dinesh will try to capture the passion of people who fought for a belief and died during pre-Independence India. Dutt told PTI the three martyrs were a hardcore suicide squad which took to violence because their ruler was more violent but he had no intention of idolising anyone. “But the fact remains that these boys or men are symbol of values and attitude that many of today’s nationalists have lost,” the ‘Ranjana Ami Aar Aashbona’ director said Saturday.

Asked about the pre-production of the film, scheduled to be released in August 2019, Dutt said, “What I had decided from the start was that I will try to be as factual and historically correct as possible, the period details have to be correct but I will not make a conventional historical film.”

On December 8, 1930, Benoy along with Badal and Dinesh Chandra Gupta, dressed in European costumes, entered the Writers’ Building, the citadel of power in British rule, and shot dead colonel N S Simpson, who got notoriety for brutal force against freedom fighters.

While Badal Gupta ingested Potassium Cyanide, Benoy and Dinesh shot themselves point blank with firearms surrounded by British police after the firing. Benoy breathed his last in a hospital while Dinesh survived and was sentenced to death by hanging on July 7, 1931 at the Alipore Jail. Asked for the reason to take up the story of sacrifice of the three warriors, Dutt said, “I had been fascinated by incidents of numerous suicide squads and their huge guerilla warfare with British. I realised I belong to a race of great warriors.

“I decided I had to make a film on that… I chose the assassination of Colonel Simpson in 1930 by three very young men in their early 20s. I simply had to as a Bengali. Since I was the first to show the global Bengali with film ‘Bong Connection’, … I had to show the fighter Bengali with ‘Binoy Badal Dinesh,” he said.

Stating the plan of the film had begun long back, Dutt said, “since I began my third Byomkesh film in 2013 I had started reading up about the Bengal Volunteers, Mukti Shangha. Stating he had sought to make the film historically and factually correct and yet infuse a certain tension and passion that would make it relevant and not just a period piece, Dutt said “certain facts I discovered were so dramatic that I did not need to tweek it for drama.” He said certain situations had only been fictionalised for the sake of story telling, like the one-hour long battle with 18 bullets fired.

“My job was to make the mission or the climax unpredictable. Since I have also incorporated rebel Kanailal Bhattacharya’s killing of Judge Garrik which happened within a month after Dinesh’s hanging, I have played around with time, flashbacks etc.It now feels like an exciting script,” he said. “For instance, while everyone knew that the two committed suicide, one was hanged, my job was to keep the suspense alive despite knowing the facts,” he said. Bengali actors Abir Chatterjee, Anirban Bhattacharya and Arjun Chakraborty will portray the three leads in the film.

“Since it was a period piece that showed the sacrifice of the three brave men, me and my producer wanted actors who could portray them as three ordinary men, who could at the same time show what they did was heroic,” Dutt signed off. The shooting of the film will start soon. PTI SUS RG RG