Indira Dhar Mukherjee’s film Putul premiered at Festival De Cannes in its 77th version, at the Palais Theatre. Putul is an independent Bengali film with no foreign collaboration. One noteworthy fact is that after almost 6 decades an independent Bengali film premiered at Cannes.

Putul’s song “Iti Maa” has officially been chosen for the Oscars’ Best Original Song category. Additionally, the movie’s soundtrack was selected for Best Original Score. Sayan Ganguly composed the soundtrack for Putul.

A press conference was organized before the release of the film that was graced by director Indira Dhar Mukherjee and the cast and crew.

The director said “Putul is a journey of a mother to save her mother. It mainly deals with the lives of street children. Vanessa who can be seen in the poster is a young girl who did a fantastic job. We had to shoot mainly on the streets and I was worried how she would cope with that. But she worked with great ease. Wherever I may be praised, the main fact remains that you need to be praised in your hometown. I wish to receive the same kind of love in Kolkata that I got abroad”.

Indira Dhar Mukherjee also added that she did not have enough finances to promote the film during the Oscar run. Whatever happened, happened organically and she is proud and contented with the result.

Tanushree Shankar will be seen in an important role in the film. Though she did not reveal her role, she praised the director for giving her space to portray the character. “After I complete the acting in a film, I feel like I could have done this scene better. This is similar to writing an exam. However, Indira was happy with my work and that relaxed me” said Tanushree Shankar.

Even after acting in so many films, Mumtaz Sorcar is still anxious about the release of Putul. “It is a new film and a new journey. We all learn from every film. The struggle with this film was different. After the Cannes screening, the film had a great run at the Oscars. This is my second film at the Oscars after Roktokorobi. It feels great when your work goes to the Oscars. We had a great team and we all worked extra hard to make this film. Getting directed by a woman director does not happen always. I am glad that Indira chose to make films. Her journey is just starting and I hope she has a great run”.

Speaking at the occasion, designer turned actor Indroneel Mukherjee said “I do not know what Indira saw in me to cast me in her film. I have never acted before. This is my first film. I have always worked in reality shows and I have never portrayed someone that I am not. It was difficult. The hardest thing was to memorize lines. However, she gave me the liberty to speak the lines in the way I understood and later make it up during the dubbing. It took me two days to complete the dubbing”.

Sayan Ganguly who handled the music and background score said that he had no idea that the music would have such a run when he was composing it. However, it took him some time to digest the news.

The film is releasing on the 27^th of December.

Video link of the press conference- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNl1jvBK9do

Priyanka Dutta