Exclusive - Prosenjit Chatterjee on Khakee: The Bengal Chapter, says 'it will give Bengali cinema a lift in the commercial area'

Prosenjit in a still from Khakee: The Bengal Chapter

Veteran Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee is going to be seen as a politician in the gripping political thriller Khakee: The Bengal Chapter, which is written by Neeraj Pandey.

The show, which is the second installment of the Khakee series—the first being The Bihar Chapter—is going to stream on Netflix from March 20.

The Bengal Chapter mostly has Bengali actors—besides stalwarts like Prosenjit, it also stars established Bengali actors Jeet, Saswata Chatterjee, and Parambrata, to name a few.

Ahead of the show's release, Prosenjit spoke exclusively with Money Control and said he is happy to be a part of the OTT space and is also confident that Khakee: The Bengal Chapter will give Bengali cinema the much-needed exposure.

When asked if he felt the Bengali cinema had been left behind and why, Prosenjit said, "It's not behind. I would rather say that Bengali film has been always in its own way. They have their own intellect. They have their own way of storytelling. And if you talk about, on the international level, films, I think our Bengali films, from Satyajit Ray to Buddhadev Dasgupta to Rituparna Ghosh, have always been giving wonderful, great films, but we are more into that intellectual area of what I believed."

Prosenjit, who has been in the industry for over 5 decades, further added that the Bengal Chapter will give Bengali Cinema a much-needed lift in the commercial space. "I'm sure that this Bengal chapter will give us a lift in the commerce area of the cinema or show. Because a lot of great actors and technicians have shot the film in Bengal. It's not only the visual; a lot of great technicians have even been working on this. I think this exposure was very much needed. And where me, Jeet, Saswata Chatterjee, and Parambrata Chatterjee are all together, so it gets focused. I don't know why, but Bengal is classified as super intellectuals. Of course, our cinema is intellectual. We have been doing that kind of stuff. But when it comes to commercial, I think the Bengal chapter will give us a breakthrough in that way, to get into that commercial mode. That's my personal take," he said.

The veteran actor also said that he had been wanting to work with Neeraj Pandey for a long time, and the Bihar Chapter gave him that.

When quizzed on what made him say yes to this role, he said first it was Neeraj and second the story, which shows a 'very different Bengal.'.

"Firstly, I think it was Neeraj (Pandey). I've been trying to work with him. I have known him for a long time. And, of course, it's a Bengal chapter, which made me feel, if I'm there in this project, it's focusing on Bengal. I think of me, Jeet, and another lot of fantastic actors from Bengal and the story, which also tells a very different Bengal. A different part of Bengal. And the character itself, as you know, I've always been trying to do something that is different. It's a very strong character. Mhmm. And he's a wonderful director of a wonderful script. In fact, so many great actors together. So I just said yes, and I love that, the swag of the character," he laughed.

Prosenjit's character Barun Da has shades of grey, and when asked if he considers it an out-and-out negative role, he replies, 'The character has to be very challenging.'

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"You would have seen in Jubilee also, I don't believe in this positive and negative sense of character I do and have done in the last ten, twelve years. I've been trying to do the character, which has a lot of shades. And a negative person can't be fully negative or positive. It can't be fully positive. I just feel it will be shades. And, if you talk about Ram, you need to have a good Ravan. Right? And I'm really not bothered nowadays; I think for me, the character has to be very challenging. And people should remember this character. Even when I did Roy sahab in Jubilee, people have not forgotten that character. It was not a very positive character. I love to nowadays; I love to play with those kinds of roles, so I enjoy it thoroughly," he said.

Prosenjit made his debut in the OTT space with Vikramaditya Motwane's Jubilee in 2023 and says he is happy to be a part of the web shows that give the actors and good cinema to reach the right kind of audience. Prosenjit said he also believes that regional cinema has gotten a much-needed boost thanks to the rise of OTT.

"It's not that I've focused on OTT. I've been doing my Bengali films. I have been doing, and I'm trying to do, Hindi work also. I've focused. I think, for an actor, it's a great opportunity. You see? For the actor where you do a cinema, I've been doing cinema for the last forty years. Yes. So OTT is a new platform, and you get to work with a lot of new talent. You get better exposure; new challenges come every day for me. And it reaches out to a lot of people. You see, again, we were regional, which I've been telling you for a long time. We have always been told that Bengal, but now Marathi or Malayali, has become Pan India. So this is the magic of OTT, where you can get a lot of great actors, a lot of good directors, and a lot of stories that come in this OTT, where we were not able to watch all those. So, we were not able to reach out to them. So this is, I will say, helping for the new challenge also to get into this platform and do a lot of good work, actually. And I've been working for so many years. For me, any project is my first project. So I believe in this. So even Khakee: Bengal Chapter is my first project. So I've tried my best," he concludes.

Khakee: The Bihar Chapter was based on real-life incidents; the new season is purely fictional.

Khakee: The Bengal Chapter boasts of an ensemble cast, including Jeet Madnani, Saswata Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Adil Khan, Ritvik Bhowmik, Chitrangda Singh, and Pooja Chopra.

The show has been directed by Debatma Mandal and Tushar Kanti Ray and is going to stream on Netflix India from March 20.