Moner Manik: Soham Chakraborty reveals his favourite characters from Satyajit Ray’s iconic films

As a child actor, Soham Chakraborty starred in Satyajit Ray‘s popular 1990 film Shakha Proshakha. A very young Soham essayed the role of Dingo in the film and later, went on to bag the prestigious Uttam Kumar Awards for the Child Artist Of The Year for his performance. During a recent Moner Manik episode, on the occasion of Satyajit Ray’s birth centenary, a now superhit Bengali actor Soham Chakraborty got candid about his relationship with Ray and his favourite film characters of the filmmaker.

Watch a Moner Manik episode here:

Soham’s favourites – Heerak Raja, Jotayu and more

When asked about his favourite characters from various Satyajit Ray’s films, Soham laughed out loud. Then, Soham stated, that according to him the most entertaining character of Ray’s Heerak Rajar Deshe would have to be the Heerak Raja, played by Utpal Dutt. Coming to Joi Baba Felunath, Soham confidently said it would have to be Soumitra Chatterjee’s Feluda and Santosh Dutta’s Lalmohan Ganguly a.k.a. Jotayu. Soham did not hesitate even once to confirm that Apu would be the most captivating character of Pather Panchali, another iconic Ray film, in his eyes.

Also read: Mother’s Day 2021: Swastika Mukherjee, Priyanka Sarkar and other leading ladies who kill it as single mothers!

Ray films Soham can watch on loop!

Further, talking about one of Ray’s most popular films of all time, Nayak, Soham said his favourite character would have to be Aditi. Played by Sharmila Tagore, Aditi was a women’s magazine editor who got in talks with Arindam Mukherjee, essayed by Uttam Kumar, in Nayak! Soham was also asked which films of Ray would he never hesitate to watch on loop. To this, he answered saying he would always love to tune into Ray films like Nayak, Joi Baba Felunath and Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne on loop.

Also read: Mother’s Day 2021: Mithai’s Sritoma and Aparajita Apu’s Supu are no less than second mothers to their younger siblings!

How did Ray choose Soham for ‘Shakha Proshakha’?

Soham also spoke about how he was chosen to play the role of Dingo in Satyajit Ray’s Shakha Proshakha. The actor stated that senior actor Dipankar Dey was the mediator who communicated to Soham’s parents, about the role that Satyajit Ray was looking for a child actor to cast in. Upon meeting Ray, Soham was asked to recite a poem, which impressed the filmmaker.

Also read: 100 Years of Satyajit Ray: Revisiting Mahanagar, and its ahead-of-the-time take on gender ego and insecurity

Soham recalled how several days later, he was sent a car by Ray’s manager to get him to meet him, as the actor was about to leave for school. Upon meeting Ray, Soham had delivered each dialogue confidently, as asked by the legendary filmmaker which left him even more impressed. Ray told him that the final filming dates would be finalised and informed to them soon, which happened eventually leading Soham to star as Dingo in Shakha Proshakha!