While Rahul plays the uncanny sleuth, Anupam's voice plays the sleuth's companion Lalmohan Ganaguly. Both the actors are immensely excited by the prospect of doing Ray on radio.
Says Rahul, "Earlier I had done the voice for BBC's adaptation of Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy. That had won the best drama award in England. Now I'm doing Adventures Of Feluda on the BBC.
This is the closest I get to working with Ray without really working with him. I was flattered when the BBC said my name kept recurring when a short-list was made of who should play Feluda in the radio play.
Coincidentally, I read all 35 of Ray's Feluda stories just a year back for the first time in my life. Like any other Mumbaite I'm totally cut off from my Bengali roots until such an occasion arises."
Rahul says emoting on radio is very different from doing so on screen. "A part of the experience is the same. When you are preparing to play the role it doesn't matter if it's for screen or radio.
However the challenge on radio is to be tall in your voice, to sound hungry and passionate....
You can be superman on radio even if you don't look like Hrithik Roshan. Indians are a very audio nation. We respond immediately to sonic stimuli. Whether it's a dialogue from Sholay or a jingle from an ad we identify immediately with the sound.
I think radio is poised to make a big comeback."
Adds Anupam, "I did radio in my days of struggle. It's such a pleasure to back on this medium again. And also very exhausting. I've been standing before the mike all day long for days.
At the end of it I feel extremely rewarded because your entire performance comes from your voice. I never got to work with Ray. I'm doing so now."