Aveek Mukhopadhyay to complete Rituparno's last film?

Contrary to reports that Sujoy Ghosh will  'complete' Rituparno Ghosh’s new film 'Satyanvesh', the buzz in Kolkata is that Rituparno’s faithful and long-standing cinematographer Aveek Mukhopadhyay and not Sujoy would supervise the post –production work.

In fact Sujoy more or less rules out chances of his taking over the project.

“Firstly, Satyanvesh is complete, so there is no question of me or anyone else associated with the film completing the film.So we’re basically looking at the post-production work. My main concern is my dubbing. I don’t know how I’ll do it without Ritu to  handle my faulty Bangla.Secondly Aveek understood Ritu’s vision far better than me. He has been Ritu’s DOP(Director Of Photography) in  7-8 of his most recent film including 'Chokher Bali' and Ritu’s previous film 'Chitrangda'.”

A thing of beauty is a ‘Sujoy’ forever? This would certainly be an applicable observation going by the options being explored to see a quick and favourable finish to Rituparno Ghosh latest work Satyanveshi.

When contacted Sujoy who was in Kolkata for Ritu’s funeral said,“It’s too early to discuss this. It’s up to the producers Venkatesh Films to take a full and final call on this matter.But of course I am all there for the project.Whatever is required will be done by me.But there is the whole team to support Rituda’s film. There is specially  Aveek Mukhopadhyay , the cinematographer who has been with Ritu on many of his recent films. The important thing is to make sure Ritu’s name and reputation are not compromised in any way. ”

But to take over the post-production reins of Satyanveshi is not as easy for Sujoy as it sounds.

Says Sujoy, “I came on board as an actor. When I reached the location for Ritu I had left behind my vocation as a director. It took me a few days to acclimatize myself to the new role. But once I did I was all there. I forgot that I was a filmmaker. Now to be looking at this film from the eyes of a director is difficult for me.”

The next level of challenge for  Sujoy is to dub for 'Satyanveshi'. “Just two days before he passed away Ritu called to discuss the dubbing.As we all know Ritu was very very particular about the dubbing. And my Bengali is shaky. Ritu planned to sit with me for the dubbing.Now with him gone I don’t know how  I am going to manage.”

Looking back in fond regret Sujoy says, “When Rituda convinced me to come on board as an actor I had to surrender completely to his vision.That took a while. But finally I cracked the code for how to be an actor and not a director. I learnt so much from Ritu on cinema. I thought I was Satyajit Ray’s greatest fan until I met Ritu. I made one mistaken observation about Ray’s cinema. And I was scolded for the entire day by Ritu. Now both Ray and Ritu must be discussing cinema up there.”