Exclusive! Feluda on stage: Shoumo Banerjee to play the sleuth and Jay Badlani, Maganlal Meghraj

After a series of films and web series, Satyajit Ray’s iconic sleuth Feluda is all set to be staged as a play. Ankur Natyadal Kolkata is all set to adapt Ray’s 1989-novel Golapi Mukta Rohosyo on stage. Shoumo Banerjee will be seen as Feluda, while Jay Badlani will play the character of Maganlal Meghraj. Falguni Chatterjee may play a small character. The play will be premiered on September 16. This will be the second Feluda production after Sabyasachi Chakrabarty’s Apshara Theatre-er Mamla many years ago. 

The play is directed by Subhadip Chakrabarti, who will also play Lalmohon Ganguly, aka Jatayu. Topshey will be portrayed by another group member, Chayan. Radio Jockey Agnijit Sen, who is one of the key characters of the theatre group, confirmed that they took permission from Sandip Ray for a few shows. “Babuda (Sandip Ray) gave us the stage rights for three shows and he will come to watch one of the shows. We are sticking to the original story. It is not contemporised and it follows the book to the T. When we asked Babuda to give us suggestions, he said every single detail is written in the book and we are keeping that in mind. Along with that, we are also staging the production so that even a youngster with zero exposure to Feluda will get the essence of this legendary character,” said the theatre worker. 

This show was initially planned in 2020. The show was supposed to be staged in May that year. However, the pandemic upset that then. Agnijit said, "We planned to stage this production way before Feluda became a rage like today. We have been trying to portray Feluda as we read him in books."  

The production preparation is in full swing. Nabarun Bose is composing the music. “He is creating the music keeping Ray’s references in mind. He is following Jai Baba Felunath and Sonar Kella keenly. Besides, he is also taking references to Babuda’s Feluda music. Our challenge is to properly recreate the stage and location-specific sets. We are on it. It is an expensive production and we are not aiming at profit. However, this is an expensive play with sets and costumes and we are trying to pool money. Hence if we get some sponsors or patrons, we will be relieved,” he said.