Trinamool Congress minister and well-known stage personality Bratya Basu has teamed up with his filmmaker friend Suman Mukhopadhyay in 'Asamapto'.
Based on a novel written by popular author Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay, the film will see the two come together for the first time after their acclaimed movie 'Herbert'.
Bratya told PTI, "Despite differences in our political views, we have a healthy mutual respect as practitioners in the field of art."
Suman had recently in a TV channel talk show spoken about alleged undemocratic practices of the Trinamool Congress government during the Assembly polls.
Crediting Suman with infusing fresh talents in cinema and introducing an altogether different genre of Bengali cinema, Bratya said, "Our relationship has love, conflict, respect and obvious disagreement."
Suman, returning the compliment, said, "While our political discord remains, we have to be mutually respectful towards each other. And we are."
Bratya, who plays a husband in Asamapto, said that he, Suman and Kaushik Sen were three inseparable friends whose bonding with theatre dated years back.
On actor Kaushik Sen's recent observation that the present-day political climate in Bengal and elsewhere in the country made staging of Shakespearean plays more relevant, Suman said it was not always imperative to relate art to the present state-of-affairs.
A creative and sensitive person may come up with his response at a later phase, at a later point of time, he argued. "Shakespeare can always be interpreted and adapted independent of time."
To a question if the film will not be a departure from his previous genre of films - the period feel Sesher Kobita or satirical Herbert - Suman said, "This work of Sirshenduda is structurally different from his other works, a bit complex."
The film also stars Paoli Dam and Ritwik Chakroborty, two versatile actors in Bengali cinema.
