The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC), may not be a familiar name for most of us but for the film making community it is an offline Wikipedia for anything to do with Bengali society, thought and culture of a certain era.

Set up in 1973, the autonomous institute is known to have helped filmmakers unfamiliar with the milieu gain a better understanding of Bengali ethos while making films about the community. The researchers attached to the institute are having a field day discussing the authenticity of Dibakar Banerjee's latest production, which deals with detective Byomkesh, a literary character well loved by Bengalis. We believe production designer Vandana Kataria was quite meticulous in her research, and wouldn't give up till she had every little detail nailed. But the in-joke is about another filmmaker, whose nod to authenticity were the words 'eesh' and 'shotti' used randomly and with some unintentionally comic effect.

Apparently,during the making ofDevdas, the erudite scholars of the institute were not too impressed with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's alleged lack of knowledge about most things Bengali. In fact, they still have a good laugh recalling how one of the senior faculty members gave Bhansali a tough time with a long reading list, plenty of homework, and some tonguein-cheek take on his ignorance. The film may have created box-office history, but Bhansali's teachers were not impressed by their star pupil's performance.