Studipto Chattopadhyaya has come a long way from Bengali to Hindi cinema. A winner of National Award for a Bengali film titled Monsoon Melody, this filmmaker has many Bengali films in his credit.

He began his Bollywood career as a storywriter for a two stories in Dus Kahaniyaan and he is now all set with his debut directorial venture in Hindi Cinema. The film titled Pankh stars Bipasha Basu, Maradona Rebello, Amit Purohit and many more.

In an interview, he talks at length about his film and his intellectual-connection with Bipasha Basu.

A storywriter at heart, you have stepped into direction in Bollywood now. Since you are known name in Bengali cinema, shed some light on your previous work?

A student of FTTI, I entered the world of advertising immediately after studies. And soon after that I got into Bengali cinema and churned out films. Without sounding boastful, my films have done the rounds of international festivals and I also was honoured with a National Award for a film titled Monsoon Melody.

Monsoon Melody reminds of Monsoon Wedding and your debut Bollywood venture Pankh revolves around the child actor's trauma which is quite similar to the character played by Shefali Shah in Monsoon Wedding? Why did you zero upon the subject of child actors trauma?

Well, I chose this subject because of its relevance. Although Monsoon Wedding did showcase the trauma beautifully but that was just a part of the film.

Whereas, Pankh is first of its kind which brings this issue with much more sensitivity. In fact, the story is all about parents exploiting their child's innocence to meet their selfish ends against his wills. Maradona Rebello plays the child's character that experiences both mental and physical abuse and carries it till his adulthood.

Humm, Maradona Rebello is making his debut as an actor. Has he lived up to your expectations as far as his performance in the film is concerned?

I risk my head with Maradona Rebello. In fact, in an audition of 250 boys, I had zeroed two boys who have played pivotal roles in the film. Maradona and Amit Purohit are two amazingly talented people who worked extremely hard for their roles. They used to attend workshops and I made them watch international cinema and they have lived up beyond my expectations.

Has the film shaped up the way you have decided?

Absolutely, otherwise I would not have completed the film and put my signature for release.

Earlier films were recognized with the actors associated but today there has come a sea change in the face of cinema. Now the directors are getting due recognition and the latest example is Love Aaj Kal; people were keen to watch a film from the director of Jab We Met. What's your take on that?

Well, I think media really got obsessed with the word stardom and Indian Cinema too with the result, got carried away with the word.

What do you have to say about veterans like Dada Sahib Phalke, Satyajit Ray, and Shyam Benegal who left an indelible mark without a star name associated with them?

So, media today plays a very important in marketing of a product, be it an actor, director or a film on the whole. And yet again films are recognized with the director's name, the way it technically should be.

Coming back to Pankh, how was it to direct an establish actor like Bipasha and that too such an off-beat character -she is playing? Did bong-connection made things easy. Tell us about your experience? There is nothing like bong or personal or Asian connection....its is an intellectual connection. Bipasha Basu was the actor I was looking out for when I was writing the script and I was more than glad to hear that she agreed to do the film.

Bipasha is an epitome of professionalism. She understood the sensitivity of the character and also got aware of the fact that it was not a regular run-of the mill kind of film she was doing. See, mental equilibrium was attained in our case which made things on the set very easy.

Humm, intellectual-connection, so were there any discussions on the sets since the film deals with sensitive issue?

As I said earlier, Bipasha understood the gravity of the story and so she seeped in very well in the character. Things went very smoothly but at times we would indulge in some discussions for the betterment of the film.

Tell us about your other projects in the pipeline?

I am in the midst of couple of projects; one to be names is Sona Gachi which is about a 9 year old child and prostitute in Asia's notorious red light area at Calcutta which is under the banner of White Feather Films. Another project under the same production banner is in the pipeline. I am also writing a script for Pooja Bhat's directorial venture.