‘ Always game for some good Bengali fiction’

Iread when I run out of ideas. Honestly, it helps me find fodder for my movie scripts. Since I have a natural inclination towards Bengali fiction, I keep leafing through whatever interesting read catches my attention.

One of the eminent Bengali novelists I’m earnestly fond of is Saradindu Bandyopadhyay. His well- known historical novel, Tungabhadrar Teere, is currently keeping me busy in between my pre- production work of my next film. A dash of humour, witty one- liners and satirical jibes are characteristic traits of his works. It goes without saying that I am thoroughly enjoying the novel. Before I picked up this book, I happened to read another noted Bengali author Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay’s Goynar Baksho.

Also recently, I finished reading the very famous fantasy- adventure novel, Life of Pi, by the Man Booker Prize- winning writer, Yann Martel. The book itself is endowed with such a radiant pictorial quality that you know the film had to replicate the same aesthetics in equal measure on the big screen. The story moves along a beautiful journey that the protagonist Indian boy from Pondicherry — Piscine Molitor Patel aka Pi — sets out on. After a shipwreck, how Pi survives 227 days, stranded on a boat amidst the vast Pacific Ocean only with a ferocious Royal Bengal tiger called Richard Parker, is what the book unfolds in an amazing manner. Sujoy Ghosh is a film director As told to

Santanu Chowdhury