Exclusive! Anirban Chakrabarti: Besides Eken Babu’s comedy, I have been working with dark characters also

The sleuth web series Eken Babu has made Anirban Chakrabarti a household name. The actor has just completed shooting the sixth season of Eken Babu for Hoichoi and is now preparing for the second film of the franchise. The shooting of Ruddhaswas Rajasthan is scheduled to start by the end of November. The actor has immersed himself in preparing for the character.

“When the first season was dropped in 2018, we had no idea if it would be renewed for a second season. The on-screen character looks pretty different from the literary character. We were apprehensive if people would like the new and relatively lesser-known, detective on the block. With six seasons and two films within a little more than four years, I can call it a success. I cannot begin to express the love I received for playing Eken Babu,” an emotional Anirban told us.

The sixth series and the upcoming film will be directed by Joydeep Mukherjee. Talking about the preparations, Anirban said, “There is little difference between portraying the character for the series and film. Given the character is animated and a little comical, there isn’t much difference. On the big screen, I tone down a little so that the expressions don’t get amplified.”

Soon after the shooting of Ruddhaswas Rajasthan, Anirban will get busy with the shooting of the second season of Srijit Mukherji’s Feludar Goyendagiri – another Hoichoi web series based on Satyajit Ray’s iconic sleuth, Feluda. Anirban plays Jatayu – Feluda’s dear friend – in the series. The new season will be based on Bhuswargo Bhayankar. The shooting is slated to start in early 2023. “Since I am the first person to play Eken Babu, there was no reference. I could develop the character according to my understanding. Meanwhile, some of the greatest actors have played Jatayu and Santosh Dutta literally iconised it. While playing Jatayu, my challenge is to maintain the familiarity people are used to and yet try to bring some amount of newness so that it doesn’t look like a copy,” the actor said.

Despite the popularity of Eken Babu, Anirban refuses to limit himself to comical characters. He continued to experiment with dark roles. “My character in Bhotbhoti is a serial killer. In Byadh, my character is very dark. People accepted me in all the other characters as well. I used to be a regular theatre actor. I try to work on stage whenever I can. There will be a special show of Mareech Sangbad during Chetana’s (one of the leading theatre groups in Kolkata’s) 50 years celebration and I will act in that iconic play,” he said.