Bedabrata Pain sacrificed a lot for ‘Chittagong’: Anurag Kashyap

Bedabrata is making his Bollywood debut with the film,set against the backdrop of the Chittagong uprising in 1930s,where a group of schoolboys and young women,led by a schoolteacher,Masterda Surya Sen,took on the British Empire.

“I started working on the film from 2006 and at that time there were many producers interested in the film. But in 2008 because of the recession,everyone backed out. I did not have any option but to invest all the money I had got as royalty for the camera technology in the film. We had budget constraints. We shot the film in just 42 days because we did not even have the money for the 43rd day,” Bedabrata said.

Ashutosh Gowariker’s 2010 film “Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey” was also based on the uprising but Anurag said “Chittagong” is far more tighter and focused.

“‘Chittagong’ was made much before ‘Khele Hum…’. I have seen both the films and I can say that there is no similarity. Our film is much tighter and focused. It is told through the eyes of a 14-year-old boy,Jhunku Roy. Our film is made with one tenth of the budget of the previous film,” Anurag added.

The film stars Manoj Bajpai,who plays the role of Masterda Surya Sen,Nawazuddin Siddiqui,Vega Tamotia,Raj Kumar Yadav,Jaideep Ahlawat among others. The film will hit theatres on October 12. Manoj says he found a role of lifetime in the film.

“The moment I read the script,I knew I had to be part of it. Films like this don’t come often in an actor’s life. So the moment I was offered this I could not let it go,” Manoj said.

Nawazuddin,who was the first person to be on board,said that he was too happy to be even asked to be part of “Chittagong” in 2008.

“I did not even read the script. I jumped at the opportunity of doing a film which has a great subject. And on top of that I was given my first romantic role. It was an offer I could not refuse,” the actor said.