Mr. Prasun Banerjee, a West Bengal cadre IPS officer of 2006 batch, who is popular because of his onscreen portrayal of a super cop in a TV serial, is writing a crime thriller based on the Covid-19 pandemic.
The story is about how the absence of post-mortem in suspected Covid deaths has left room for criminals anywhere in the world to get away with cold-blooded murder. This will be adapted into a film later on. As of today, he is the first IPS officer to play a super cop in a Bengali soap opera.
HOW THE IDEA WAS BORN
The idea of writing a crime thriller came to his mind when he saw the visuals of massive number of deaths in Italy when Covid-19 was at its peak. The morgues were full due to which dead bodies were piled up outside the hospitals.
He also heard that the health infrastructure in Italy was in shambles and no post-mortem was conducted as the number of deaths was too high.
Says the officer, “I know as a cop that any kind of unnatural death needs a post-mortem report, but in the case of Covid-19, nobody touches the body for fear of contamination, which provides an opportunity to murderers to get away.”
SET IN EUROPE, SHOT IN INDIA
Mr. Banerjee thought of writing the story when he had a conversation with an Italian cop last year. He thought that this would be the perfect time to write a revenge story since a case can’t be treated as murder if no post-mortem is done on the body.
He added, “Though my story is set in Europe, it will be filmed in Kolkata. Filmmaker Subrata Sen is planning to make a movie on my story, and I will be playing a major character in it.”
OTHER WORKS
Besides his writings and his official duty as a bureaucrat, he plays the character of an IPS officer, ‘Avimanyu Dasgupta’, in the Bengali mega serial ‘Desher Mati’. He has also directed a documentary named, ‘Paradise Lost: From Dazzle to Despair’, which is based on the Zamindari system in North Bengal.
Mr. Banerjee has been part of several plays, documentaries and short films. He co-directed a documentary that was selected for Dadasaheb Phalke Award. He has also written a Bengali short story on football called “Byatar Elem Chhilo”, after the death of Argentine footballer Diego Maradona.
TIME MANAGEMENT
When asked about how he manages his time between his real and reel work, Mr. Banerjee said, “I know how to categorize my priorities and, so, balancing the two has never been a problem for me.”
The production house and the directors understand his busy work schedule as an IPS officer and adjust the shooting according to his schedules. He said that he shoots only once a week.
Mr. Banerjee has proved that no matter how busy our lives are, we can always find time to follow our passion and do the things that we love to do. All it takes is a fine balancing act to maintain harmony in all spheres of our lives.
