Gaurav Chakrabarty on Nikosh Chhaya: Most of the Bengali ghosts are good and helpful | Exclusive
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Bhoot Chaturdashi is around the corner. Like last year, Parambrata Chatterjee is all set to bring the second season of his paranormal thriller Bhaduri Moshai. Last year, his Parnashavarir Shaap was lauded by critics and viewers alike. This year, Chiranjeet Chakraborty is back as occult master, Bhaduri Moshai, in Nikosh Chhaya. Besides, the show also features Surangana Bandyopadhyay, Gaurav Chakrabarty, Anindita Bose, Anujoy Chattopadhyay, and others. Nikosh Chhaya will stream on Hoichoi from October 31. Before that, Gaurav, who plays one of the key characters, spoke to us about his take on the horror genre.
Gaurav Chakraborty was spooked out by Korean horror, Shutter
Talking about his own choices, Gaurav said that he finds horror, as a genre, ‘interesting’. “I can’t say that horror is my most favourite genre, but I find it interesting. I remember I watched a Korean horror movie, Shutter, when I was in my hostel. I was so spooked out that my sleep was disturbed.”
The actor admitted that he did not invest enough time to engage with horror films. “I did not watch as many horror films as I should. I take responsibility for that. I have heard a lot about Conjuring and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. And yet, I did not watch them,” he said, adding, “Ridhima (Ghosh, Gaurav’s wife) does not watch horror at all. As a result, together we never watch horror movies. And when she is out, I choose action films over horror films. However, I hope our audiences aren’t like me.”
Helpful ghosts of Bengali literature
Talking about horror literature and films in Bengali, Gaurav said that most of our ghosts are good and helpful. “The ghost stories by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and all are always sweet. They are not scary at all. Bhaduri Moshai deals with stronger spirits,” he said.
Fighting superstitions
But do such tales of evil spirits encourage the existing superstitions in a society like ours? “There is a risk of that. That's why the director and the writer took extra responsibility. In this series, the protagonist is Bhaduri Moshai, who fights against the dark side of spirits. It is a clear battle of good versus evil and it glorifies the good.”
While Gaurav may not have a lot of horror films on his watchlist, he finds acting in such films more engaging. “I will try to explain. When I play someone in a murder mystery or a thriller, we deal with tangible criminals. There is either a murderer or a thief and so on. In supernatural horror movies, there is either no one or something that is created by VFX. That is when you have to heavily bank on your imagination and the vision of your director. Paramda (Parambrata) plays a fabulous role here. I totally enjoyed working in both the seasons as Amiya,” he said.
