A Detective in Bollywood

Detective Byomkesh Bakshi occupies a hallowed platform in Bengali literature,alongside other sharp private eyes such as Feluda and Kakababu. Now,Bakshi will make his Bollywood debut in Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!,a co-production between Yashraj Films (YRF) and Dibakar Banerjee Productions (DBP). Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is the first in a series that will feature Bengali bestseller writer Saradindu Banerjee’s protagonist. Playing the detective will be Sushant Singh Rajput,whose last cinematic outing was Kai Po Che!.

This film,directed by Dibakar Banerjee,will revolve around the first adventure of Byomkesh. Fresh out of college,the detective pits himself against an evil genius who is out to destroy the world. “We are rebooting Byomkesh back to his first case. We could have called this Byomkesh Begins,” says Banerjee.

The film,which will be a contemporary interpretation of war-torn Calcutta during the ’40s,is slated to release on December 12,2014. Banerjee adds that he chose Rajput because he has a “dormant volcano thing about him” that is just right for his Byomkesh.

“He looks so quiet,so self-absorbed and withdrawn — till you challenge him. Then he explodes and becomes the most dangerous man in the world — at least for the criminals. It’s him against the most villainous arch criminal the world has seen,” says Banerjee,who will start shooting in January 2014.