Talmar Romeo Juliet: Before the release of Anirban Bhattacharya’s series here are the other works based on Shakespeare

Talmar Romeo Juliet will drop on Hoichoi on November 15. Directed by Arpan Garai and penned by Durbar Sharma, Anirban Bhattacharya has worked as a creative director of the film. Hiya Roy and Debdutta Raha play Juliet, Jahanara, and Romeo, aka Rana. Besides, Joydeep Mukherjee, Kamaleswar Mukhopadhyay, Ujan Chatterjee, and others play key roles in the web series.  

Before adapting Romeo Juliet, Anirban directed the Hoichoi web series Mandaar based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. He also worked as a creative director of Arna Mukhopadhyay’s Athhoi (yet to be released on OTT), which is based on Macbeth. By his own confession, he said, “Shakespeare's works are the most entertaining. It has been proved that his plays can engage people from different social classes.”  

Here is a list of Bengali films that are based on Shakespeare’s works and here is where to find them... 

Bhranti Bilash 

Based on Comedy Of Errors and streams on YouTube 

Produced and acted by Uttam Kumar, Bhranti Bilash is based on Comedy Of Errors. Interestingly, the story was written by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. Uttam Kumar and Bhanu Bandyopadhyay play double roles with Sandhya Roy and Sabitri Chatterjee as female leads. The film is directed by Manu Sen.  

Arshinagar  

Based on Romeo Juliet and streams on JioCinema and Hoichoi 

Romeo Juliet lends itself to an extensive range of cinematic adaptations. Directed by Aparna Sen, the film features Dev and Rittika Sen as the main lead. Besides, Jisshu Sengupta, Kaushik Sen, Waheeda Rehman, Kamaleshwar Mukherjee, Roopa Ganguly, and Jaya Seal Ghosh play key characters.  

Hrid Majharey 

Loosely based on Othello and streams on Prime 

Directed by Ranjan Ghosh, Hrid Majharey delves into a modern-day love between Abhijit Mukherjee (Abir Chatterjee) and Debjani (Raima Sen).  

Zulfiqar 

Based on Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, and streams on Hoichoi 

Directed by Srijit Mukherji, Zulfiqar is a multistarrer with Prosenjit Chatterjee, Dev, Parambrata Chatterjee, Ankush Hazra, Jisshu U Sengupta, Kaushik Sen, Rahul Banerjee, Nusrat Jahan, Paoli Dam, June Malia, and Kanchan Mullick in the lead. The premise of the film revolves around a syndicate run by Zulfiqar and his team. The film received a lukewarm response from the critics. 

Hemanta 

Based on Hamlet. Yet to have a streaming partner. 

Directed by Anjan Dutt, the film has Parambrata Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Payel Sarkar, Gargi Roychowdhury, Saswata Chatterjee and Shantilal Mukherjee. Parambrata plays Hemanta – Hamlet – who gets back to India from the US to find out the details of his family’s filmmaking business. This too got a lukewarm response from the critics.