On 22 September, actor Abir Chatterjee took to Twitter to share the official trailer of Byomkesh Gowtro. Paying a tribute to author Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, who created the character of Byomkesh, Abir wrote: “Here goes the Official Trailer of #ByomkeshGowtro, our tribute to #SaradinduBandyopadhyay on his death anniversary. In Cinemas 12th October.”

Byomkesh Gowtro is a much-anticipated suspense thriller in which Abir will be reprising his role as the titular character, Byomkesh Bakshi.

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Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s Byomkesh, who preferred to call himself a “satyanveshi” (seeker of the truth) and not a detective, first made his screen appearance in 1967. Popular Bengali actor Uttam Kumar played the first Byomkesh on screen, and the movie, Chiriyakhana, was based on a story by the same name.

Bandyopadhyay wrote a total of 32 Byomkesh stories, besides an incomplete one, and all of them have been made into films or TV serials. There have been radio and stage adaptations also of the stories featuring Byomkesh Bakshi.

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The forthcoming Byomkesh Gowtro is based on the story, Rakter Daag (Stains of Blood) penned by Bandyopadhyay. Directed by Arindam Sil, the film deals with a ‘love triangle’ that gets serious requiring the Satyanveshi to intervene.

Rakter Daag, the original story published in 1956, had taken up a bold subject for the time, showing some pivotal characters as victims of the lifestyle observed during the post-World War I period that had brought a wave of liberation. Modern women, child outside marriage, a wealthy indulgent father, a spoilt brat – Rakter Daag has all the masala for a hit potboiler. And that’s the reason the storyline has served as the plot for more than one Byomkesh outings on screen and stage.

Rakter Daag has a dramatic beginning, with Satyakam, the young scion of a wealthy family, coming to Byomkesh and making full payment upfront to investigate his own death – a prediction that surprisingly turns true shortly. The story retains the drama with twists at every turn.

Satyakam’s character has many vices. He is a notoriously spoilt brat, a habitual drinker, a gambler, and a womaniser who has many enemies. Who among them could have killed him? Setting out on his mission to find the answer, Byomkesh unravels many mysteries surrounding the young character and in the end faces with the dilemma of whether to out with all the secrets or not.

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While it is yet to be seen if director Arindam Sil has stuck to the original story or has made alterations to it, a recent Byomkesh Bakshi series on Bangla web streaming platform Hoichoi has featured the same story retaining the original plot.

Sil is however confident that loyal film goers will not prefer a web series based on the same work over a big-screen venture.

“Film audiences of a thriller like Byomkesh, which has its own grandeur, will never shift their loyalties to any other media and flock to the theatres,” Sil recently told the media.

মৃত্যুর সম্পর্ক না সম্পর্কের মৃত্যু?

Here goes the Official Trailer of #ByomkeshGowtro, our tribute to #SaradinduBandyopadhyay on his death anniversary. In Cinemas 12th October.https://t.co/SnLL4uMk5m@SVFsocial @silarindam

— Abir Chatterjee (@itsmeabir) September 22, 2018

Sil has earlier directed two hit Byomkesh films in Bengali, and his latest venture has everything on a grander scale, according to him.

So, who killed Satyakam? What role did the ‘Stains of Blood’ (Rakter Daag) play in the tale? Will Byomkesh bring the murderer to justice?

Byomkesh Gowtro starring Sohini Sarkar, Arjun Chakraborty, and Rahul Banerjee alongside Abir Chatterjee is releasing on 12 October 2018.