Bob Biswas is a fresh, different take from Kahaani: Chitrangda Singh

Chitrangda Singh isn’t new to thriller territory, having aced a bunch of them over the course of her career. Still, there’s much to anticipate in her forthcoming feature. In Bob Biswas, Abhishek Bachchan dorks up as the bespectacled contract killer from Kahaani (previously played by Saswata Chatterjee). Chitrangda plays his wife, Mary. The couple lives in Kolkata, with two kids. There’s just one problem. Bob has no recollection whatsoever of his life, private or professional.

Chitrangda assures there’s a ‘quirky’ love story in the middle of all the deadpan serial killing. “It has its dark humour, for sure. Mary is the complete opposite of what Bob stands for. It’s a nice, awkward love story in the centre of this crime thriller.”

Chitrangda and Abhishek Bachchan have collaborated for the first time in Bob Biswas. Both leads aren’t from Bengal, though Abhishek’s mother, veteran actor Jaya Bachchan, is Bengali. Chitrangda says she’d been in Kolkata many times, though this was her longest stay.

“It’s a city rich in history and culture. Whenever we got time, we were going out and exploring places, or just ordering in. I quite enjoyed the Bengali food at The Oberoi Grand.”

Steamed bhetki aside, it wasn’t an easy production. They had completed 80 per cent of the shoot when the pandemic struck. By the time they got back, the world had changed. “The number of people on set was drastically cut down. There would just be 2-3 of us in the room during a scene. We were always on location, shooting and going back to the hotel and not venturing out.”

Still, the efficiency of first-time director Diya Annapurna Ghosh, Sujoy Ghosh’s daughter, surprised her. “For a 26-year-old, she did a valiant job. Everything was planned in detail." This extended to the storytelling. "She took Sujoy’s script and completely transformed it. It’s an extremely fresh, young and different take from Kahaani.”