September 18, 2026 06:26 am (IST)
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Tollywood veteran Dipankar De roots for money-spinning entertainers
Kolkata, July 5 (IBNS) Though he misses working in films made by late maestro Satyajit Ray and other stalwarts of yesteryear, veteran Tollywood actor Dipankar De, a favourite of critically acclaimed filmmakers like Goutam Ghosh, pitches for mass entertainers without which the film industry cannot sustain.
"I am equally at ease both in Goutam's films as well films by say Haranath Chakroborty [a hardcore commercial filmmaker]," the Sakha Prasakha actor tells IBNS at the promotional event of a new thriller, Sesh Anka.
Terming masala entertainers as commercial films, where he is often seen as villain, Dipankar De says: "Only art house realism can't sustain the audience and the industry. We need to back the different genres."
Dipankar, whose last two Satyajit Ray films were Agantuk and Sakha Prasakha, admits he sorely misses such films.
"Manikda (Ray) first gave me the break in Seemabddho. I still recall every moment. Yes, the narration, the scripting, everything was different from present day films. Babu (Sandip Ray) retains traces of that gharana," DE, having turned up in the last Feluda adventure Badshahi Angti nd Sanndip's debut feature Uttaran (Ascent) says.
ComIng to Sesh Anka, produced by Pradip Churiwal, he says "I play a heavyweight criminal lawyer who unravels a muder mystery."
Dipankar continues, "Decades back I had turned in a courtroom drama in a black and white film. So this is the second such role for me wheels turn the circle.."
Terming the film by debutante director Tathagata Banerjee as very English in look and treatment, Dipankar says: "The sleekness appealed to me. The script and enticing locations all made it look very global. Plus the character was out off the box."
"After being in the industry for 45 years all I can say is the audience and the films both have undergone rapid changes. Some of which is for good and yet some not so."
Director Tathagata says,"There was a court-drama themed film similarly named Sesh Anka in about fifty years back. However, the similarities end here."
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