Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Ram Kamal Mukherjee’s film Season’s Greetings is still making the right buzz. The film has won accolades home and internationally for its content and even now it’s making the right noise.
Produced by Assorted Motion Pictures and SS1 Entertainment the film pays tribute to late Rituparno Ghosh. Currently streaming on Zee5Premium, the film marks comeback of Bollywood diva Celina Jaitly post marriage and motherhood. The film also stars Lillette Dubey, Azhar Khan and transgender actor Shree Ghatak.
The film was premeired at Cardiff International Film Festival last year in the presence of Hollywood and Bollywood big wigs. Legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan had formally launched the film. It became India’s first short to get Special Mention at Best Shorts in USA, which is considered as equivalent to Oscars for short films.
Recently Celina recieved a notification from Facebook stating that her five seconds teaser from Season’s Greetings crossed 8 million views. In an exclusive interview with IWMBUZZ from Austria, the acclaimed actor Celina Jaitly says, ” I was amazed to get an alert from my Facebook Fanpage of organic views crossing 8.5 Million and still growing.
“Bas Ek Karvat Ki Doori Thi” is such a deep and intense line that resonated with millions of hearts of all ages. The lines were beautifully penned by Ram Kamal and recited by Lillette ji. I am grateful to them making me a part of something that touched people so intensely. It is a five seconds promo which says “Bas Ek Karvat Ki Doori Thi “ and it’s such an amazing proof of how good content needs only a couple of seconds to resonate with people’s souls.” It seems that in thr world of fake followers and likes, this poetic cinema is catching up with the audiences. Needless to say, this is one of the finest performance from Celina Jaitly and the music has been the talking point of the film.
Incidentally, this year’s Bigg Boss contestant Jaan Kumar Saanu made his debut in Bollywood with this film.
Producer Aritra Das says, “We are thankful to Tarun Katial and Jay Pandya from Zee5 team for understanding and valuing our content. I have always believed in organic likes. Celina has genuine fanbase and to get such huge numbers on a fan page is not a joke. I know many celebrities whose fan pages doesn’t have 10 thousand genuine followers. And when I walk in a mall or at a public place, people recognize me for Cakewalk and Season’s Greetings which makes me feel happy. Maybe someday even the mainstream awards will also recognize our effort and value our film. Till then, we are happy with public adulation.”
The film became India’s first to collaborate with United Nations Free and Equal, the film also became India’s first Bollywood film to cast a transgender Shree Ghatak. Now even mainstream actor like Akshay Kumar and Sharad Kelkar played the role of transgender in Laxmii, but it was a tough call for director Ram Kamal to cast Shree as Chapala in the film. “I have seen Laxmii. Akshay and Sharad are good actors. But for me as a filmmaker I had a different challenge. I wanted someone to play the role of Chapala who would look feminine but will also have a few male trait to justify the transformation in the film,” says director Ram Kamal Mukherjee.
