Netflix’s anthology series Ray, based on four stories by veteran filmmaker Satyajit Ray, recently debuted on the streamer and received mixed response from the audience. Releasing in Ray’s centenary year, the anthology includes ‘Forget Me Not’ and ‘Baharupiya’ by Srijit Mukherji, ‘Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa’ by Abhishek Choubey and ‘Spotlight’ by Vasan Bala. Sayantan Mukherjee, who worked as a showrunner on the series, revealed that he had originally approached several directors for the project, but things didn’t materialize due to scheduling conflicts. “We almost went to everyone,” when asked if a female director was considered to lead any of the episodes. “We had no such conversation in our minds that let’s go to a male or female director. We didn’t think of him like that.”
Ajit Andhare, the COO of Viacom 18 Studios, which bankrolled the project, said that he has the rights to 12 of Ray’s stories and is expected to collaborate with a female director in the next part of the anthology series. However, he said that he had approached Meghna Gulzar and Gauri Shinde for the recently released series.
“It was practical issues for us at times. For example, I remember that we had approached Meghna. We also got in touch with Gauri Shinde. We still have 12 stories and this is just the first set so we will have the opportunity to avoid that gender charge. But we had definitely contacted him, but it didn’t work out due to various practical reasons. But I am sure it will happen in the fullness of time,” Ajit said.
Talking about the process of getting the rights to adapt Ray’s stories, Sayantan said, “I didn’t find it too difficult. I went to his son’s house two or three times. I sat with him and had tea and some good food. We bonded well and I think he just gave it to me because he thought I was just a little boy asking for 12 stories. So, it was not difficult. At the time, I didn’t think I even knew how it was going to happen, but I told her I was going to make it great, big and fun. And, he gave it to me only after the third meeting. He was like, ‘Okay, tell me how many do you need?’ So did happen. So, I think I am really lucky.” Sayantan was speaking at the Dial M for Films session, where he was accompanied by Sreejith, Abhishek and Vasan.
From financiers to directors and finally finding the right platform to release the series, Sayantan faced many challenges to bring these four short stories from the renowned author and writer to life. Srijit Mukherjee was one of the first to join the project along with Siraj Ahmed, who wrote Baharupiya.
“When I told Ajit about the idea he got more excited than me. Meanwhile, Sreejith and I were talking about 50-60 other projects because Sreejith always has some 100 projects on his mind Then we both discussed Ray and he wanted to do something similar. We realized that we have an idea and we also have a producer so let’s go with it. Thank you for getting the rights after that. It was not that difficult.
“I met Abhishek before Vasan and I narrated 2-3 stories to him. And, I really wanted him to do psychological thrillers and horror films because in my mind I thought these are Abhishek Chaubey’s films and he chose Hungama Hai Kyun Barpa. I think the moment he chose Hungama Hai Kyun Barpa, I got really excited because I knew he really believed in it. Then Vasan and I had a long conversation on the spotlight and what this industry is and how everyone is doing here. I think that’s where Spotlight originated.”
How do they see the stories in today’s context? Sayantan said, “We were not trying to modernize anything. Because I think the stories are very modern if you read the original stories. Abhishek’s story is not even based on today’s times so the idea was that if you’re taking it out of bengal how can you find it and look at other cultures through it and find some other relevance through it.that was the overall thematic relationship between all the stories .
“When we wrote Forget Me Not and Baharupiya, these were the best ways for us to tell stories that we thought were never, “Let’s make dark and modern stories.” We didn’t have a stage. was when we made Bahrupiya but we were really excited about it so Sreejith and I thought let’s make a pilot. Ajit really supported us. He really wanted to go and make a pilot, even though No platform attached. I don’t know how he took this call but thank god he did it because we made Baharupiya. We struggled a lot while shooting for it. We didn’t have Netflix budget at that time. But me Looks like the good thing is that Sreejith is used to working. Low budget, in fact, he enjoys it. So, I think it really worked out.”
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