Arindam Sil starts shooting with Param as Feluda

After bringing the likes of Shabor, Byomkesh, and Mitin Mashi onto the big screen, noted filmmaker Arindam Sil is now laying his hands on the on-screen adaptation of Asia’s Best Crime Detector, though this will be made for an OTT platform.

Based on Satyajit Ray’s one of the earliest Feluda works, ‘Gangtoke Gondogol’ — a story which does not feature Lalmohan Ganguly and was first published in the Desh magazine in 1970 — the 10-episode web series ‘Shabaash Feluda’ will be streaming on Zee 5.

Arindam Sil and his team went into shooting for the much-awaited series on August 30, after spending two long years behind scripting and other logistics.

The pre-production phase was also faced with a legal battle over copyright issues, after SVF Entertainment had moved to the commercial court, challenging the production of the Zee 5 series.

But it looks like after successfully dealing with all the legal turbulence, Feluda is now all set to embark on the journey of trouble in Gangtok, a municipality in the eastern Himalayan range.

Parambrata Chattopadhyay, who has earlier experiences of not only playing the roles of Byomkesh and Topshe but even Feluda as well, will once again be seen to play the character of Bengal’s most beloved sleuth.

And just like his own Feluda directorial, Parambrata will continue to use modern gadgets like smartphones, smartwatch and seek help from Google, for Sil has contemporised the subject matter, setting it in the year 2017.

But Sil has also tried to keep the essence of the original Feluda text intact in his screenplay, which will show Feluda paying visits to Sidhu Jyatha and having important discussions with him. Besides doing yoga, the modern-day Feluda will be cycling as well to keep apt, fighting fit physique.

Regarding his decision to cast Parambrata as Feluda again, Sil has this to say as quoted by Telegraph India: “Param as Feluda in Gangtoke Gondogol is superb. Param fits the bill perfectly. Feluda has a certain kind of innocence, which we feel has come out brilliantly in Param’s look as Feluda. His clothes have an earthy tone.”

Rwitobroto Mukherjee will play Topshe, while the versatile actors Ritwick Chakraborty and Rudranil Ghosh have been cast as Sashadhar Bose and Nishikanta Roy, respectively. The director himself will portray an important character of Sadasiv Selvankar.

Sil has also added two new characters, set to be played by Sauraseni Maitra and Rajatava Dutta.

While the actor-director admits there might be chances of a certain section of the audience reacting negatively to the changes he is bringing about in the Feluda story, he also claims that his “biggest tribute to Ray would be if more young people start reading the Feluda stories” after watching the series. Earlier he had also paid homage to Ray in his very first film, ‘Aborto’.

With much of the shooting taking place in Sikkim alongside Kolkata, ‘Gangtoke Gondogol’ promises to be a