Dibakar Banerjee is ensuring that he is the first director to bring Byomkesh Bakshi to Hindi cinema audience by buying the rights to all the 30 stories by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay

Dibakar's film 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy' is jointly being produced by his production house and Yash Raj Films. The deal has been struck for about Rs 8-10 crore and from now on, no one would be able to take up or use any of Byomkesh's stories in any language except Bengali.

"We have bought all 30 stories. We have left Bengali out of respect to the writer and Bengali people," Banerjee said in a statement. "The idea is to ensure that no one else makes a film on Byomkesh till I am done with my franchise or series.

If I don't do that, someone else will pick up another story from the series. So there will be multiple Byomkeshs. It will ultimately be confusing and detrimental to my film and character's image in the public's eyes."


Dibakar is also planning to turn the stories into graphic novels. "It's a dream that we are working on. Right now, I can only say that much," the director said. Set in 1942, the film, starring Sushant Singh Rajput as Byomkesh, will show a war-torn Kolkata during the '40s as it follows the first adventure of Byomkesh, who is fresh out of college.

The period thriller will hit theatres in December next year.