Sandip Ray’s about-to-be-released Royal Bengal Rahasya is his fifth film in his Feluda series created by his great father Satyajit Ray. It is the first film of Sandip Ray’s Feluda films to be produced by the Shree Venkatesh-Surinder Films Combine scheduled for a national release across 67 theatres in the country. Its release is tainted with the sad demise of one of its key characters Jatayu portrayed by Bibhu Bhattacharya who passed away suddenly after the last day of the dubbing for the film. Royal Bengal Rahasya also marks the entry of two actors who have not worked in a Sandip Ray film before – Basudeb Mukherjee who has done the role of Mahitosh Singha Roy, the affluent zamindar and Bhaswar Chatterjee who jumped at the chance of working in his first Sandip Ray film never mind the fact that the character he portrays dies half way through the film. Feluda in this film is more cerebral, more verbose than in the other films but there is still a kick in the character.“I was terribly excited about doing this Feluda film when I heard it will be shot in the forests entirely because I am a wild-life photographer and love the forests, the flora and fauna in them and of course, wild life. It felt closer than any of the other Feluda films I have done though I have enjoyed working in every single Feluda film,” says Sabyasachi Chakraborty. He shrugs off reports of this being his last Feluda film is his last because he is ageing by stating, “It all depends on whether the audience accepts me as Feluda again and also whether the director thinks I should still work as Feluda. I had some reservations because the age-gap between Feluda and Topshey is increasing with every film. But in the final analysis, I think it is best left to the audience to decide,” he sums up. The palace of Mahitosh Singha Roy was difficult to locate in West Bengal. The crew finally found it in the palace of Shri R.P. Singh Deo. “We also shot in and around Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary and at the Deer Park inside the Ballabhpur Wild Life Sanctuary in Bolpur. It was scary but thrilling,” says Sandip Ray elaborating on the experience. “The interiors of R.P. Singh Deo’s palace interiors had the perfect look of a hunting lodge with heads of animals as wall-hung trophies. There were chital and sambhar heads. There was also the stuffed head and skin of a full-grown male tiger in an almirah,” says Chakraborty.The story can be summed up like this. Visiting the famous hunter and wildlife writer Mahitosh Singha Roy in his Jalpaiguri palace, Feluda is presented with a riddle that holds the clue to an ancestral treasure. But before he can begin unraveling the puzzle, Mr. Sinha-Roy’s secretary is found dead in the forest, his body savaged by a big cat. Feluda’s investigations lead him deeper into a scandalous family secret, and bring him face to face with a bloodthirsty Royal Bengal tiger in a final confrontation. Sandip Ray has written the screenplay itself besides composing the music score that covers several theme tracks. Saheb Bhattacharya does Topshey again while Paran Bandopadhyay appears as the elder brother of Mahitosh Singha Roy. Sasanka Palit has done the cinematography, Subrata Roy has edited the film and Manik Bhattacharya is art director. Lolita Ray as usual, has designed the costumes while Anup Mukherjee has done the sound design. “The film had to be shot on the wild life locations in natural light with reflectors because generators were not permitted in the sanctuaries,” Chakraborty sums up.
