Kolkata: West Bengal Tourism Minister Bratya Basu, who is an accomplished actor and a playwright, is set to bring alive the mercurial theatre personality of the 70s into celluloid.
Bratya, however, would not shed any light on who the stage personality he intended to portray in the new film.
"I shall portray a group theatre director of that era, a versatile and erudite person wedded to theatre. This much I can say," Bratya told PTI.
Asked if the character he was portraying had shades of Nandikar spearhead Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay, the minister smiled and said, "I am leaving it to your guesswork."
The film "Natoker Mato" is being directed by a friend and thespian Debesh Chattopadhyay.
Bratya said he liked to project the rich historical legacy of Bengali group theatre in films.
The director of the film, however, gave some hints: "My film has references to the Bengali theatre movement of the late 60s and 70s and deals with the life of a leading stage actress."
He was alluding to Keya Chakraborty who had sensationally died in a boat mishap.
On casting Bratya Basu, Debesh said he was the right person to bring the personality of Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay alive.
"Bratya as my friend knew I had been researching on this subject, Keya Chakroborty, and her surroundings for long. He personally knows this phase and that helped," Debesh said.
Refusing to call his film a documentary, he said that at best it could be described as a biopic or an "attempt to to judge the past with a foot in the present".
The director said that Paoli Dam would play the part of Keya with a screen name 'Kheya', a deliberate reference to Keya, perhaps.
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