Jeet puts his faith in mainstream commercial films wholeheartedly. Traditionally, he makes every effort to produce and work in such films. After a series of action-packed films, like Ravaan and Chengiz, Jeet is all set with Boomerang – a sci-fi comedy. Based on the Bengali play Punoray Ruby Ray by Falguni Chatterjee's Lokokrishti, the film has Rukmini Maitra in a double role – one, Jeet’s love interest, and the other, a robot. Before the release, the superstar spoke with OTTplay about his excitement and reasons for choosing sci-fi as a subject that is less explored in the Bengali film industry.

Jeet explains the reason for picking sci-fi as a subject for Boomerang

Talking about selecting an uncommon genre, Jeet said that a series of action thrillers and grim subjects induced monotony in him as an actor. “I have been doing films of a certain genre for a while and it was getting a tad monotonous. I was feeling that I should do something lighter – like a comedy. Post-COVID, my films were a little in the dark phase – underworld, etc. Criminal activities are there in this one also, but not in the dark space. It is wrapped in comedy and there are no killings at all. Shouvik (Kundu, director) watched this theatre and told us. We went ahead with the idea,” he said.

Jeet further said that this change in taste is also for the audience. “If you just follow just one pattern, as an artist, you feel monotonous. Your audience will also feel the same if you constantly serve them just one type of film. I was feeling that. But I am happy now that we are coming with some happy stuff. People are calling it refreshing and new. When we saw the rush of the film, we knew this would be the reaction,” he said.

However, sci-fi is not a genre that is well-tested and has no known success recipe. It also involves a certain amount of financial investment in terms of VFX, etc. Jeet elaborated, “Film business is a risky business as it is. We, in fact, focused and invested in visuals. Our job as makers and producers taught us to understand how to get the right visuals. We have a fabulous VFX team. They are the top of the line in the country. We liked the core idea and then went through a few drafts of writings.”

In fact, artists from Knack Studio, who worked in films like Ponniyin Selvan: II, Dasara, and others, worked in Boomerang. “Our VFX budget is more than many high-end Bengali films,” said Jeet. But does the Bengali film market offer the scope to recover that amount of money invested? “We also failed to come up with films that are fresh, new, and other out of the box. We made family drama after family drama. And then made detective films one after the other. I hope this works. We are in a risky business. But I am sure if we keep on making quality films, sooner or later, we will recover. If not immediately, it will still make money someday,” the actor added.

Jeet talks about his experience of working with Rukmini Maitra

This is the first time Jeet paired up with Rukmini. How was the experience? “She is nice. She is committed to her work. Even when she worked in Switzerland, we felt that she treated us like family. She is aware of what is expected from her on screen and she gets that as precisely as possible. She works on it,” said Jeet.

Rukmini, meanwhile, watched the play, Punoray Ruby Ray. She also did workshops with Monalisa Chatterjee, who plays Nisha on stage. Jeet revealed, “Rukmini and several other team members watched the stage show. She watched it because of the robot part. That’s the most difficult bit. Rukmini is a fairly new actress who doesn’t have a huge body of work. She puts all her effort into getting things right. She did workshops with Monalisa Chatterjee, who plays the robot on stage. I haven’t watched the theatre. But I know a lot of Monalisa’s inputs were taken. Nisha's character is challenging.”

The actor further added, “We worked with Rukmini and we had a good experience. We also liked her personality – the way she speaks and conducts herself fits with the character. There is a mutual desire to work," jokingly adding, "Also, no girl would refuse to do this role in the world.”

It has often been said that heroines in Jeet’s films barely get substantial characters to play. In fact, Jeet was also criticised for not making enough room for other actors. The actor clearly said that he put the film before everything else, even his insecurities. “I can do a film with just one scene. I can do a short film. I have no hang-ups over screen space or time. I have worked in Royal Bengal Tiger where Abir Chatterjee is the hero. I was there for half an hour. I have no insecurity. As a producer, I think if a film succeeds, it will be in our library,” he said.

‘Same-day releases are unavoidable’

Boomerang will be released with Kaushik Ganguly’s Ajogyo which features Prosenjot Chatterjee and Rituparna Sengupta. Talking about same-day releases, Jeet pointed out that such clashes are inevitable. “So many films are being made in this country that it is impossible to avoid clashes. There are just 52 weeks and so many films. There will be sharing. Big-ticket films get released with small-budget films. There is no single week where there are no multiple releases. There are Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Hindi, English – films of so many different languages,” he said.

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