KOLKATA: A rookie Kolkata director is making a Chinese-language film on the city’s Chinese community in which the lead cast, too, has been drawn from residents of India’s original Chinatowns, Tangra and Tiretta Bazaar, making it the first such project in the country.
Chahat Mansingka’s self-funded film, to be screened in October at the 33rd World Hakka Conference in Luoyang, China, is a story of loss, longing, friendship, forgiveness and love.
“There was a Chinese dental clinic near my home in central Kolkata and the memory inspired me to write a script on the Chinese community,” said the 26-year-old filmmaker.
To play the lead role, Mansingka picked a 57-year-old Chinese, Priscilla Chung Liying, who was born and bred in Kolkata but shifted to Bangalore after marriage. “I flew down to Kolkata and stayed with the team for the shoot,” Priscilla said.
The film’s narrative revolves around the reality of most Chinese families in the city where the elderly have stayed back and the younger generation has migrated to different parts of the world. It is being shot on location at Tangra and Tiretta Bazaar.
“It is a closed community which made it difficult to convince the Chinese people about my project and get them to act in it,” said Mansingka, who initially distributed hundreds of pamphlets in Chinese homes.
Selena Yep (29), who lives in Tangra, plays the protagonist’s daughter. “I am a child educator. Acting in the film was an entirely different experience,” she said.
Shooting for the film began last October with Mansingka’s camera panning Tangra’s Chinese tanneries, vegetable markets, restaurants, Pie May school, Nam Soon Church and Tiretta Bazar’s mahjong club. This weekend, the filmmaker will capture the vibrant Chinese New Year celebrations at the Chinatowns.
Janice Lee, director of a Chinese food products’ company in Tiretta Bazar, was instrumental in spreading the word about the film. “My social media post last April on casting call for the film received a very positive response,” she said. Many from the city’s Hakka Chinese community expressed interest and 60 of them took part in the auditions over the next few months. Six newcomers were chosen to play the main characters and 15 others picked for secondary roles and to serve as extras.
“I hope this movie will leave a footprint of our existence in Kolkata over two centuries since the first Chinese landed in Achipur,” said Liu Mei Ling, who also extended her support in developing the storyline. Liu, who lives in Tangra, is a committee member of the World Hakka Conference Association.
In the past, Shakti Samanta directed and produced ‘China Town’ (1962), a Hindi romantic comedy thriller, the story of which was based on a Darjeeling-based singer who was asked to impersonate a Kolkata Chinatown gangster.
Dibakar Banerjee’s ‘Detective Bomkesh Bakshy!’ (2015) also focused on the city’s Chinese community with the sleuth probing a series of mysterious killings in the Tiretta Bazar . Based on a story by Saradindu Bandyopadhyay, the film was set in 1943 against the backdrop of the opium trade.
Chahat Mansingka’s self-funded film, to be screened in October at the 33rd World Hakka Conference in Luoyang, China, is a story of loss, longing, friendship, forgiveness and love.
“There was a Chinese dental clinic near my home in central Kolkata and the memory inspired me to write a script on the Chinese community,” said the 26-year-old filmmaker.
To play the lead role, Mansingka picked a 57-year-old Chinese, Priscilla Chung Liying, who was born and bred in Kolkata but shifted to Bangalore after marriage. “I flew down to Kolkata and stayed with the team for the shoot,” Priscilla said.
The film’s narrative revolves around the reality of most Chinese families in the city where the elderly have stayed back and the younger generation has migrated to different parts of the world. It is being shot on location at Tangra and Tiretta Bazaar.
“It is a closed community which made it difficult to convince the Chinese people about my project and get them to act in it,” said Mansingka, who initially distributed hundreds of pamphlets in Chinese homes.
Selena Yep (29), who lives in Tangra, plays the protagonist’s daughter. “I am a child educator. Acting in the film was an entirely different experience,” she said.
Shooting for the film began last October with Mansingka’s camera panning Tangra’s Chinese tanneries, vegetable markets, restaurants, Pie May school, Nam Soon Church and Tiretta Bazar’s mahjong club. This weekend, the filmmaker will capture the vibrant Chinese New Year celebrations at the Chinatowns.
Janice Lee, director of a Chinese food products’ company in Tiretta Bazar, was instrumental in spreading the word about the film. “My social media post last April on casting call for the film received a very positive response,” she said. Many from the city’s Hakka Chinese community expressed interest and 60 of them took part in the auditions over the next few months. Six newcomers were chosen to play the main characters and 15 others picked for secondary roles and to serve as extras.
“I hope this movie will leave a footprint of our existence in Kolkata over two centuries since the first Chinese landed in Achipur,” said Liu Mei Ling, who also extended her support in developing the storyline. Liu, who lives in Tangra, is a committee member of the World Hakka Conference Association.
In the past, Shakti Samanta directed and produced ‘China Town’ (1962), a Hindi romantic comedy thriller, the story of which was based on a Darjeeling-based singer who was asked to impersonate a Kolkata Chinatown gangster.
Dibakar Banerjee’s ‘Detective Bomkesh Bakshy!’ (2015) also focused on the city’s Chinese community with the sleuth probing a series of mysterious killings in the Tiretta Bazar . Based on a story by Saradindu Bandyopadhyay, the film was set in 1943 against the backdrop of the opium trade.