New Delhi:
The hinterland of Uttar Pradesh, the uncanny rustic charm of Bihar, the secret spots of Punjab – these are the locales that OTT has explored in cop dramas time and again. But could anyone ever think that Bengal and its suburbs could also join this list?
Khakee: The Bengal Chapter is one of the first entries on this list. It is a gritty Hindi-language cop drama with Bengali superstars leading the charge.
Neeraj Panday has made the impossible possible.
He has brought together two of the Bengali film industry’s biggest superstars – Prosenjit and Jeet – on screen for the first time. This is a feat that no Bengali director has achieved so far.
The Khakee franchise, which was launched with Khakee: The Bihar Chapter on Netflix in 2022, has now moved to Bengal.
Khakee: The Bengal Chapter dropped on Netflix today, March 20.
NDTV caught up with the lead cast (minus one) – Jeet, Chitrangda Singh, Ritwik Bhowmik and Aadil Zafar Khan for a fun tete-a-tete. Prosenjit was not part of the interaction.
The cast tells NDTV how much of Kolkata they explored during the shoot, how they react to trolls, and online criticism, which gets disturbing at times.
Excerpts from the conversation:
NDTV: What’s the current mood, now that your labour of love Khakee: The Bengal Chapter is releasing?
Chitrangda Singh: I’m nervous, very nervous (smiles).
Ritwik Bhowmik: Nervous; excited too.
Chitrangda Singh: I have a term for it. It’s called Nexcitement – You are nervous and you are excited. I’m nexcited.
Ritwik Bhowmik: I love the term (smiles).
Aadil Zafar Khan: When you are nervous and excited, you react the same way.
Ritwik Bhowmik: Jeet da, how are you feeling?
Jeet: I was excited so far; now I think I am nexcited (smiles).
The Kolkata Connection
NDTV: How much of Kolkata did you explore during the shoot of Khakee: The Bengal Chapter? Did Jeet introduce the new facets of Kolkata to Chitrangda, Ritwik and Aadil?
Chitrangda Singh: I didn’t get much of a chance. I barely shot a couple of days in Kolkata. Most of my scenes are here in Mumbai. But, of course, I have been to Kolkata earlier.
During the shoot of Bob Biswas (2021), I stayed over a month in Kolkata, my longest stay – in and out of Covid – and later, to promote the film too. I would give a lot of credit to Abhishek (Bachchan) who introduced me to a lot of things – be it the food; he took me to a temple. He knows Kolkata like the back of his hand. He’s so Bengali at heart. And Sujoy (Ghosh, director of Bob Biswas) is also from Kolkata. It’s a wonderful city. It’s got so much culture, history, like soaking in history. It’s like a cultural overdose when someone is coming from Mumbai or Delhi (for that matter). It’s a beautiful city.
Ritwik and Aadil on set
Ritwik Bhowmik: How’s your experience, Aadil? You’re the most recent Bengali (smiles).
Aadil Zafar Khan: One year of being Bengali (smiles). I think, the best part is when you are an actor and a part of a such complex story, you explore places which are not typically touristry. We shot near the Ganga; that location is crazy, the house where I live in the show, that’s interesting.
Overall, there’s an old-school charm to the city, a lot of characters are there. There’s a lot of vibrance, colours in the streets, people. The food was great. Ritwik has a connection. We explored food places in the city after we packed up every day. I think Kolkata is now one of my favourite cities.
Ritwik Bhowmik: Successfully converted one into a pure Bengali! Six more to go (smiles). The longest amount of time I have spent in Kolkata has been during the shoot of The Bengal Chapter. It’s a revelation for me too – I got to play a character who is from the underbelly of the city. So, I got to see the city from a different perspective.
Now, I am looking forward to spending more time in Kolkata and doing more work in the city. I have discussed with Aadil already – whenever we get the time, we will go to Kolkata to spend our chhutti.
Jeet to Ritwik: Aa jaiye, aa jaiye (Please do come). She asked how Jeet da took care of you. I expected you would say a few good words about me. You keep on talking about Kolkata and only Kolkata (chuckles).
Jeet plays an IPS officer in the series
Aadil Zafar Khan: There’s no Kolkata without Jeet da.
Ritwik Bhowmik: Impossible.
Aadil Zafar Khan: Great time with him, great time being around him. He really took great care of us. He has strong elder-brother vibes.
Jeet: Thank you (smiles).
Trolls, Online Negativity And Criticism
Q: OTT projects are susceptible to harsh criticism at times. Recently, Nadaaniyan was thrashed brutally. How do you react to online criticism, trolling?
Jeet: There’s a saying that never take success to your head and failures to your heart. Work is just a part of life. You have to move on. We know these things upset you. But you have to keep yourself motivated, and move on to the next. Take the learnings and improve yourself.
Chitrangda Singh: You have to consider this as a feedback from the audience.
Chitrangda Singh in a BTS still
Q: Do you read negative comments on social media?
Chitrangda Singh: I do. As a performer, we are working for the audience. Good, bad, ugly – if there’s a response, we have to take it. Audiences have the right to react to what we are presenting. As an artiste, whether I am a painter, or an actor, it’s for the public. I’m not going to sit at home and make my five friends watch it and make them say great things about it. Audience is the king.
Trolling is terrible, I know. I also know that there are people who derive sadistic pleasure out of pulling people down. But at the same time, from an objective point of view, one has to see what the audience likes, what they want to see, what they appreciate. I would take audience’s reaction on the chin as it’s our job.
Q: Do you get affected by trolls?
Chitrangda Singh: I do get affected. But you know, I can tell who is a troll and who’s speaking the truth. In some films, if someone said that I didn’t look the part, it’s correct. Maybe I am too urbane for that part. That’s a discerning audience and you can sense that. I don’t agree to completely washing off whatever the audience is saying. I do give them that respect.
Ritwik Bhowmik: My career began on OTT platforms and I am still working here. So, I have spent a lot of time on OTT. If you are putting out your work, you will be liked by millions, but there are chances that you won’t be liked by a few. If you are really opening your arms to the world and asking them to love you, you have to accept that it’s not possible to make everyone happy.
However, to not be completely bogged down by negative comments, we need to work upon ourselves as actors. So that we can learn from it. Naseer Saab (Naseeruddin Shah, who worked with Ritwik in the Amazon Prime original Bandish Bandits) sent this message after my first release – “Don’t take the criticism too seriously, and don’t take the love to your head.”
Aadil Zafar Khan: I resonate with Ritwik and Chitrangda. It’s part of our job. And as Chitrangda says, we can distinguish between healthy criticism and the comments that we need to ignore.
Jeet: Can I read out a shayari?
Chitrangda Singh: Share a Shayari (smiles).
Jeet: Jo kalankit nahi hote, woh bandit nahi hote. Jinhe kaante na chubah ho, woh sugandhit nahi hote. Aur aagar log naa hume karte badnaam, hum charchit nahi hote.
Ritwik Bhowmik: Yeh aap zaroor chhaapna (You must publish this).
(So we did.)
Khakee: The Bengal Chapter boasts of a promising cast including Jeet, Prosenjit, Saswata Chatterjee, Ritwik Bhowmik, Aadil Zafar Khan, Chitrangda Singh, Pooja Chopra, Aakanksha Singh, Mimoh Chakraborty and Shraddha Das in key roles.
The show has been directed by Debatma Mandal and Tushar Kanti Ray. Showrunner Neeraj Pandey shares the writing credits with Debatma Mandal and Samrat Chakroborty.
