Actor Saswata Chatterjee has said that he was bothered by the fact that Abhishek Bachchan had replaced him to play the character of Bob Biswas, which made it iconic in 2012 film Kahaani starring Vidya Balan.
“Why should I be disappointed? They are making it for the Hindi market; they will look for a bigger name,” Chatterjee told Hindustan Times.
Directed by Diya Annapurna Ghosh, Bob Biswas starring Abhishek Bachchan was released this month. Kahaani starring Vidya Balan was directed by Annapuma’s’s father Sujoy Ghosh.
In Kahaani, the Bob Biswas character played by Saswata Chatterjee was based on the insurance agent, who also acted as a deadly assassin.
Chatterjee told Hindustan Times, “I did the film in 2012, why will I be bothered about it being made in 2021? I did several characters in between. If I was upset I would have come out and given so many statements. (But) I didn’t bother.”
Chatterjee said that he was proud of himself because he ‘just did a role for 10 minutes.’ “If a full-length feature film is happening with someone whose name is Abhishek Bachchan, then I’m indeed proud,” he added.
Citing James Bond series, he said, “When a character is played by two different people it should be played in two different ways. Say, James Bond. Every actor has played it differently and we should accept that. Bob has become a franchise like James Bond. So you should go to a movie hall with an open mind.”
Bob Biswas has earned plenty of plaudits from the Indian film fraternity. Filmmaker Pritish Nandy had termed Abhishek an ‘absolute delight’ even as he criticised the actor’s wig in the film.
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He had tweeted, “Enjoyed the prequel to Kahaani, directed by @sujoy_g’s daughter Diya. @juniorbachchan as Bob Biswas is an absolute delight to watch despite his awful wig. Lovely @IChitrangda is wasted as Mary, his wife. Little known actor Paran Bandopadhyay takes it all. The sequel? Kali-da.”