Was hesitant to direct Ujaan in films initially: Kaushik Ganguly

Ganguly, however, was initially reluctant to direct his son in films.

Speaking to India Blooms on the sidelines of the launch of the film's promotional song last week, the ace director opened up about his journey to direct Ujaan, who plays the lead in Lokkhi Chhele.

Ganguly says, "It wasn't easy at all. Just like doctors never want to operate their family members, I felt I would find difficulty in directing my own son. But I never found it difficult on the set. In fact, I had almost forgotten that Ujaan is my son during the shooting."

"However, I was doubtful initially whether my judgement was turning out proper during the start of the shooting," he adds.

Sweeping the nepotism allegation if at all is raised against him for casting Ujaan, Ganguly boasted that his son had to wait for 23 years to get directed by his father.

"I never thought of casting Ujaan earlier. If I had thought, I would have cast him in Nagarkirtan or Kishore Kumar Junior," Ganguly said and added, "A lot of people talk about nepotism but Ujaan had to wait for 23 years to hear the word 'action' from me!"

Lokkhi Chhele, which is centred on a young doctor (played by Ujaan) who fights against the dark side of blind religious faith, also stars Churni Ganguly in the lead. 

In the course of the interaction with us at Chapter 2, Ganguly said he actually cast Ujaan in the film upon the requests made by producers Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy, who are the founding members of Windows Production.

"I had cast Ujaan in the film on request of the producers. Shibu (Shiboprosad Mukherjee) and Nandita-di had suggested that I make a film with Ujaan after watching his theatre and they had expressed their wish to produce that project. At that time, Ujaan was studying in school," he said.

"I am very careful about my craft so I made sure Lokkhi Chhele was not influenced by my personal bonding," the director added.

The promotional song of Lokkhi Chhele has been made by Lakkhichhara band featuring singer Somlata Acharyya Chowdhury.

The film is slated for Aug 25 release.