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Once Upon a Time in Calcutta film image, director Aditya Vikram Sengupta

Once Upon a Time in Calcutta

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Canadian Premiere

Loosely inspired by people and events from director Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s life, the film follows an interconnected web of characters and the architecture of their lives. An agoraphobic recluse finds shelter in the derelict theatre inherited from his father, refusing the moneyed siren call of real estate developers and an ambitious young man finds a job in a chit fund without realizing the shady undercurrents of the financial world he’s in. At the centre is Ela, a TV host who strikes out for a new life in the wake of her daughter’s death and a floundering marriage. The Calcutta she navigates is, like herself, haunted by its past and unsure of its future.

Aditya Vikram Sengupta, working alongside Turkish cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki (Winter Sleep) finds a lyrical atmosphere, exploring the depths and vagaries of the human condition against the backdrop of a crumbling, nostalgia-mired city in the midst of urban development and cultural upheaval.

 

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Sreelekha Mitra, Satrajit Sarkar, Arindam Ghosh, Shayak Roy, Bratya Basu, Anirban Chakrabarti

Credits
Country of Origin

India/France/Norway

Year

2021

Language

In Bengali with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
133 min
Award Winners Drama

Book Tickets

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Credits

Executive Producer

Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Jonaki Bhattacharya

Producer

Priyanka Agarwal, Anshulika Dubey, Shashwat Singh, Vikram Mohinta

Screenwriter

Aditya Vikram Sengupta

Cinematography

Gökhan Tiryaki

Editor

Aditya Vikram Sengupta

Production Design

Jonaki Bhattacharya

Original Music

Minco Eggersman

Director

Aditya Vikram Sengupta headshot

Aditya Vikram Sengupta

Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s debut film Labour of Love (2014) premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Fedeora Award for Best Director of a Debut Film. His second feature Jonaki (2018) premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It went on to receive the Silver Gateway Award and the Best Film on Gender Equality at the Mumbai Film Festival. Sengupta’s next film Once Upon a Time in Calcutta (2021) was the first Bengali language feature to be a part of Cannes Cinéfondation’s L’Atelier at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016.

Filmography: Labour of Love (2014); Jonaki (2018)