After the success of his nail-biting mystery series Murder in the Hills, Anjan Dutt has donned the director’s hat yet again, this time for a murder mystery set by the beautiful waters of Puri. Titled ‘Murder by the Sea’, the series helmed by Dutta stars Ananya Chatterjee, Anjan Dutt, Arjun Chakrabarty, Trina Saha, Paavel Sarkar, Suprobhat Das, and Sujan Mukherjee, among others. During the trailer launch event held in Kolkata, News18 Showsha had an exclusive chat with the director, who shared his views on the changing state of content and his observation of the Bengali audience.
Talking about the state of Bengali OTT content, the director remarked that passing a judgment is not his job, it is only filmmaking he is focused on. However, he was quick to add that a lot of interesting things are being explored. He then went on to share his observations on the likes and dislikes of audiences, and citing the example of Money Heist, he said despite being an excellent show, it will be hard for the Bengali audience to accept it in their context.
He elaborated, “A series like Money Heist will raise ethical questions. If you make a show supporting thieves, people will not accept it. If you show murder as a rationally correct concept, it will not find acceptance. They will accept it as Money Heist, but not something happening in Bengal. We have to keep in mind the audience before making something. In a situation like that, I cannot make whatever I want. Yes, I can produce my own show, break the norm, and make something out of the box but I cannot create something that will attack the audience.”
Dutt continued, “As a Bengali audience, you will love watching South Indian films or something like a James Bond but people will question the rationality if James Bond is made here. It is not ok to challenge the audience. If you see a Swedish film with extreme nudity, you will accept it. But will you accept it if a Bengali does that? Will you, as an audience, accept complete nudity on Bengali actors? Similarly, we use the F word frequently, and it is accepted as a part of the English cinema vocabulary. But if one starts using the same word in Bengali, will anyone accept it? Because there is no acceptance of it in our culture.”
“So it depends on the audience. We can’t show them something that does not happen in reality,” Anjan Dutt concluded.
Talking of his upcoming series Murder by the Sea, it follows the murder mystery of a renowned Bengali gentleman on the shore of the Puri sea beach. The high-profile murder loops in Arpita Sen (Ananya Chatterjee), however, all the suspects soon turn into targets. The series will stream on Hoichoi from 12th August.
