Sen sisters in English flick
By: Vickey Lalwani
The Mid Day
October 22, 2005
Riya and Raima Sen will come together for the first
time in an English film, The Bong Connection (working
title), to be directed by Anjan Dutt, but will not
have any scenes together. The sisters earlier starred
together in Bachelor, which never released.
Produced by Joy Ganguly, the film will also star
Victor Banerjee, Shyan Munshi and newcomer Param Datta.
Ganguly has been associated with events, documentaries
and corporate films. My main goal was to do
full length feature films. We start the film on January
26; just about ten per cent of the dialogues will
be in Bengali.
Character specialist
Anjan will start shooting the Calcutta leg of the
film before flying off to Houston for the US schedule.
Riyas portions will be shot in March. When
contacted, Raima confirmed, Yes, my sister Riya
and I are doing this film. Anjan is like family to
us. My mother and Riya have worked with him before.
I did a few telefilms for him
he writes very
good characters.
Riyas comic turn
We contacted Riya, who said, Unlike Raima,
who will play the traditional Bengali in Kolkata,
I will be the confused girl and provide comic relief.
It is great that finally, Raima and I will be seen
in the same film. It would have been great if we had
some scenes together.
Says Dutt, who directed Bada Din (Shabana Azmi, Marc
Robinson, Tara Deshpande, Irrfan Khan), It Joys
idea and I just loved it the moment he narrated it
to me. The film will dwell on Bengalis in India, and
Bengalis who have settled abroad. We have had films
of Panjus and Gujjus, like Bend it like Beckham and
Monsoon Wedding now its time for the
Bongs to take centrestage.
The cast was decided by me. I wanted a girl
who looked contemporary, yet traditional in Bengali
attire, and another girl who looked like a hip Bengali.
Who better than Raima and Riya?
Ganguly says the story revolves around two boys and
two girls. Riya is an NRI settled in the US.
Raima stays in Kolkata. Shyan comes to Kolkata to
commercialise folk Bengali music, while Param, who
feels that Kolkata is a black hole, flies off to the
US to join a software company.