They made a film in secret on Sundays—Now it's selling out theatres

Speaking of supporting a young generation of actors, Nandita Roy revealed that almost all the actors in the film were employees in her production house Windows Production.

“They supported each other in making the film. Windows has now become an institution to teach youngsters. This I think benefits the industry as well.”, said a surprised Roy who appeared pleased with the novelty of the film.

Shiboprasad Mukherjee too requested the audience to continue to support young, emerging filmmakers.

He said, “They made the film secretly on Sundays. What I liked most is that they proved that money is not the central factor in filmmaking. They obviously had the desire and passion to make this film.”

Released on July 10, Get Up Kingshuk deals with the protagonist’s difficulties in sleep against a background of working in a metropolis. The plot is coloured with magic realism as reality is questioned and dreams drive forth the storyline.

Selected for the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) 2026, the film’s lead Shahir Raj stated: “Kingshuk is two people combined, me and the director Nandan Ghosh. Our budget was ‘love’. The response to the film is overwhelming with three continuous days of sold out theatre halls.”

Bhagyasree Roychowdhury, one of the actors in Get Up Kingshuk, speaking to reporters said: “We initially kept the film under wraps because we did not know how it had turned out. Then suddenly it got selected for KIFF which gave us the courage to even tell Nandita Di (Nandita Roy) and Shibu Da (Shiboprosad Mukherjee) that we have made a film. Get Up Kingshuk has seen full theatre halls without any PR activity.”

Director Nandan Ghosh praised the actors for being able to trust one another during the days of shooting the film as he reminisced about his journey as an independent filmmaker.

Expressing his gratitude to Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee for encouraging them to release the film on the ‘big screen’, Ghosh looks forward to more audiences gracing the theatre halls.

Get Up Kingshuk has brought forward new talents in Bengali cinema while creating an alternative space where the struggle of thriving in the modern city is highlighted.

The film, with its novel plot structure, represents what Bengali cinema still has to offer the world.

About the film

Born in an upper middle class family in a small town of West Bengal, Kingshuk finds himself working in the metropolitan city of Kolkata. In an otherwise happy professional and romantic life setting, Kingshuk's conflict comes with a very GenZ phenomenon.

Difficulties are seen in his sleep cycle as he fails to get early to the bed and subsequently to have an early rise in the morning. Trying several things to better this scenario, he goes into a daily loop of poor sleep and dark circles. An apparently small issue leads to an inferiority complex added on by several other struggles that gradually plague his otherwise happy life.

The story takes a route towards magic realism where Kingshuk discovers cowry shells from a long lost era leading to a question of reality. Time shall tell a tale of Kingshuk's struggles and a voice upon his sleep whispering, 'Get Up Kingshuk'.

Born in an upper middle class family in a small town of West Bengal, Kingshuk finds himself working in the metropolitan city of Kolkata. In an otherwise happy professional and romantic life setting, Kingshuk's conflict comes with a very GenZ phenomenon. Difficulties are seen in his sleep cycle as he fails to get early to the bed and subsequently to have an early rise in the morning.

Trying several things to better this scenario, he goes into a daily loop of poor sleep and dark circles. An apparently small issue leads to an inferiority complex added on by several other struggles that gradually plague his otherwise happy life. 

(Reporting by Hrisita Sarkar, Photos by Avishek Mitra/IBNS)