Abar Proloy-director Raj Chakraborty on Koushani Mukherjee: I want to show that commercial heroines are also good actors

The 10-episode supercop drama has a huge star cast with Saswata Chatterjee, Paran Bandyopadhyay, Gaurav Chakraborty, Ritwick Chakraborty, and others in the lead

Koushani Mukherjee

Raj Chakraborty’s Abar Proloy is all set to be dropped on Zee5 on August 11. The 10-episode supercop drama has a huge star cast with Saswata Chatterjee, Paran Bandyopadhyay, Gaurav Chakraborty, Ritwick Chakraborty, and others in the lead. The series also shows Koushani Mukherjee in a never-seen-before avatar as a disciple of the character of a godman, played by Ritwick.

Also read: Abar Proloy-director Raj Chakraborty: Bengalis don’t take you seriously unless you make a Byomkesh or a Feluda

The actress is usually seen in glamorous roles in mainstream films. In Abar Proloy, Koushani is in a complete de-glam makeup, clad in a brown uniform. Talking about casting her, Raj said that it was a conscious decision. “I have a special place in my heart for the artistes who are born out of the commercial space in the Bengali cinema. I have the urge to prove to people that given a chance, they can prove that they are good actors and actresses,” he said.

He further added that without a chance in Parineeta and Indubala Bhaater Hotel, no one would know that Subhashree is such a brilliant actress. “I wanted to offer Koushani that chance,” he said.

Also read: This is how Abar Proloy-director Raj Chakraborty tackles the question of bringing Dev and Subhashree back on the big screen

Raj expresses his displeasure over the trend of dismissing commercial film actresses as non-actors. He said that people often take no time to judge an actor/actress if they have a commercial film background. “People demoralise them and bash them for being popular through singing, dancing, and fighting. I went through this ordeal for a long time. No one took me seriously and said I have no originality. I want to tell everyone that the potential these so-called actors and actresses with commercial-film backgrounds have, they can compete at the national level. I wanted to give Koushani that chance,” he said.

After the release of the teaser, the look of Ritwick Chakraborty was criticised for being a copy of Pankaj Tripathi’s look in Sacred Games. Raj said, “Linking things is our nature. I will not say anything. I want people to watch the episodes and then we will talk about it. If I say anything right now, there will be a chance that the story will be revealed.”

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