I hope India and Bangladesh will have a seamless border in future: Goutam Ghose

Tollywood actors Prosenjit Chatterjee and Ushasie Chakraborty were also present at the debate around the film, which is inspired by the films of late maestro Ritwik Ghatak.

The debate, Partition in Bengali Cinema, mainly dwelt on issues of East Bengal and West Bengal (Bangladesh and West Bengal in India) during and after the partition, the types of films produced both in sides and the impact in the society of the films made on  partition.
 

Goutam Ghose said: “Like the topic of the debate, our film Shankhachil is a story of a family who lost their nation and motherland due to India and Bangladesh partition. The word Shankhachil means boundless, who has no boundaries, no limits. Without the awareness of the past, one cannot move ahead in future. Present is basically a moment in past and future. Past is witness to us. If we want to work on the present, we need to have ideology about our past."

"Our political scenario; our condition during the time of partition is definitely what students are probing about. But what I see, in future it will be a seamless border. Our colloquial history is same, the culture is same, and the language we speak is same, we would definitely witness the two countries as one, may be today or some other day." he added.

Tollywood actor Prosenjit Chatterjee said: “Shankhachil is a film which tries to project not only the subject of Indo-Bangladesh partition, but also how that hue of our culture and language  faded away."

"Shankhachil is an initiative. It is a film, a story, a history, and some suggestions for the youths.The youth will bring us together and we’ll find no division or boundaries. We have made the film in perspective of a river which has divided the two Bengals, but not the humans who have divided it.”

The film is set to release on Poila Boshak , the Bengali New Year.

After Moner Manush, Shankhachil is Goutam Ghose’s next Indo-Bangladesh endeavor featuring Prosenjit Chatterjee and Kushum Sikder in the lead roles.

(Reporting by Suchismita Roy; Images by Sandipan Kar)