Two stalwarts of the Bengali film industry, Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Anirban Bhattacharya are coming together with a new OTT project soon. The show has been titled ‘Bhog’ and it will be have a strong base of Indian mythology.
In the recent years, we are seeing a sudden rise in films with mythological themes. There are movies with explicit references like ‘Hanuman’, ‘Kalki’ or the recent ‘Singham Again’ and there are also movies where the allusions are more subtle and implicit like ‘Paradise’.
In Bengali movies and shows, this phenomena is not very new. It is being done for many years now and the themes have been churned to the point that everything seems to be cliché now.
The literary scene has done a lot to influence the movie and ott industry. The stories of the supernatural: mainly tantra have been exploited many times now. Indian mythology is a rich landscape with many interesting plots interwoven together. But there needs to be some innovative ideas in executing these stories. And the lack of innovation must not be shrouded by a catchy title based on mythology: as mythology is one popular subject. The filmmakers should try out new ideas apart from biopics, tribute films and now mythology and try to discover something beyond.