Sabyasachi Chakraborty will be back to play iconic detective Feluda on the big screen, despite strong backlash by audiences and filmstars because of his age.
Chakraborty, who is now 60, played Feluda, the fictional sleuth created by Satyajit Ray, in a television series directed by the maestro’s son Sandip Ray in the mid-1990s. The actor has also done five Feluda films for the big screen between 2003 and 2011.
“I admit I presently do not have the look of Feluda. But if Babuda [Ray] wanted me to come back, what can I do? It is on his request and I tried to look younger,” said Chakraborty.
Ray had taken on a younger actor, Abir Chatterjee, for his last Feluda film Badsahi Angti in 2014, but came back to Chakraborty again for his next, Double Feluda, to be released this December.
Chakraborty said that he himself had suggested Chatterjee’s name to Ray to play the new Feluda and feels the young actor’s portrayal of the sleuth was perfect in Badsahi Angti.
“However, the director and many others were of the view that the same person doing both Feluda and Byomkesh Bakshi won’t be accepted by the audience,” he said.
Filmmaker Arindam Sil has made two back-to back Byomkesh films, featuring Chatterjee in the lead role.
“As Babuda did not find any suitable replacement immediately, I was requested to step in,” said Chakraborty.
Veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee, who had donned the detective’s hat in the two Feluda films directed by Satyajit Ray himself in the 1970s, recently was quoted as saying in a media interview that he did not like the idea of Chakraborty becoming the agile, young sleuth again.
“If I am accepted as Feluda again this time, may be I will go for one more film [as Feluda],” said Chakraborty.
