Filmmaker, editor, and writer Indranil Banerjee discusses his journey and career in the film industry and talks about his upcoming projects.
Filmmaker Indranil Banerjee started his career with short-films and is now a recipient of more than 70 awards and 130 plus worldwide official selections. The director's most recent release ‘Urmimala’ was his first attempt at drama as his genre is thriller-comedy.
In an interview with outlook, the filmmaker talks about his recent offering as he says,"‘Urmimala is a trauma and the movie has twists, with a little bit of thriller touch."
The 29-year-old director, who is also an editor and writer, said that he does not make commercial films for money and his inspiration flows from Satyajit Ray and Tapan Sinha to Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan.
The filmmaker’s favourite genre with no doubt is “thriller-comedy” and his mini series ‘4 Shades Of Leap’ was hailed as India’s first horror anthology. The director said that he was extremely lucky during the lockdown phase, “Just around March or April we finished filming ‘4 Shades Of Leap’, (Leap because 2020 was a leap year) and even with the lockdown we continued working and challenged everyone. I'm an Anurag Kashyap fan but I was disappointed after watching Ghost Stories on Netflix after which me and my team started researching and working on it (4 Shades Of Leap) and we even completed it within March.”
He recalled and says that making a short-film and selling the same to OTT platforms are different and difficult jobs. “For ‘4 Shades Of Leap’ I first approached Kolkata’s renowned OTT platforms who declined it. After which I pitched to Amazon Prime, MX Player and Apple TV and was later on distributed by MX Player and Amazon Prime US. It went extremely viral and people loved it”, he said.
The Kolkata filmmaker who has previously made films like ‘The Chase’ (2015), ‘The Mirage’ (2016), ‘Trinayani —The 3rd Eye’ (2017), 'Bahannoborti' (2017), ‘One Night Stand’ (2018), ‘Hello’ (2019) and ‘Hakchoooo’ (2020). His recent short-film 'Urmimala' which was his first attempt and ‘Hello’ were competing at the 7th Emirates International Short Film Festival and were screened at Vox Cinemas.
Talking about his personal favourite from the list of his own movies he said, “My favourite definitely is my first film The Chase.It has many technical faults and camera mistakes but since it is my first it is very special to me. The word “Chase” indicates the inspiration and also the struggle."
Banerjee, was an official jury in the Seattle Film Festival and said that his sister is his biggest critic and after every release he awaits her feedback and comments. About his plans of venturing into Bollywood the 29-year-old director went on to say, “Definitely I want to do something in Bollywood and want to work with my favourite actress Vidya Balan.”
He is currently working on a Sitcom based on the story revolving around five boys with individual genre’s. “It is my dream and my research work of three years and is a fresh content for someone who wants to laugh out loud. I think the shoot will begin by February end if everything goes well. It will be Kolkata’s first sitcom," he said. He is also working on a thriller which is still in talks with the producers.