Exclusive | Dev Reacts to Comparisons of Bagha Jatin With Akshay Kumar's Kesari: 'I Knew My Look…'

Bengali star Dev is gearing up for the release of his upcoming film, Bagha Jatin. Touted to be one of the biggest Bengali releases, it is inspired from the life and journey of Jatindranath Mukherjee, a significant figure in the history of India’s struggle for independence. Ever since the first glimpse of the patriotic action drama was unveiled, fans began drawing comparisons between Dev’s look in the film and Akshay Kumar’s look in Kesari (2019). Dev’s audience back in Kolkata even claimed that his film will leave Kesari behind.

Reacting to these comparisons, in an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, Dev says, “I knew that my look as a member of the Sikh regiment would be compared to Kesari and that the Bengali film industry would be compared to Bollywood. That’s why I didn’t want to compromise on anything.”

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Though the budgets of both the films are starkly different from another, Dev made sure that he leaves no room for any criticism in Bagha Jatin. “A film Hindi based on a similar story can be made on a budget of Rs 100 crore. My film is mounted on Rs 5 crore. But I wanted to see to it that the content of Bagha Jatin can match shoulders with 200 other films. Hence, creating a world truthfully was important,” he points out.

Bagha Jatin marks Dev’s first bilingual release. Earlier this year, his contemporary, Jeet, another Bengali superstar, also marked his foray into the bilingual market with an actioner titled Chengiz. Quiz him if he decided to follow Jeet’s footsteps and Dev states, “I’m very happy that Jeet da released his film nationally. It was a fantastic move. But I started shooting for Bagha Jatin in August last year and that’s exactly when I realised that I would give it a pan-Indian release.”

The 40-year-old reveals that working on the film made for an extremely ‘challenging’ experience as sticking to facts was numero uno for him. “It took us two-and-a-half years to make a complete script. There was no documentation available on Bagha Jatin because they’ve been erased by the British. I had to read about ten books on him to understand his story. The idea was to mix and match facts and fiction without going wrong. We didn’t want to offend anyone by taking too many creative liberties,” he explains.

He shares that he was involved with the scripting ‘right from day one’ and further adds, “There was a time when we were confused if we should divide the film into two parts. We wanted to establish the backstories of all the freedom fighters and not treat their characters as junior artists. The responsibility was immense. Taking everything and putting them into a script was the most challenging part.”

Helmed by Arun Roy and produced by Dev Entertainment Ventures, Bagha Jatin is all set to release in theatres during Durga Puja on October 20 in Bengali and Hindi languages.