Summer releases vacation more fun for kids

Time of India

27-05-2025

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Kolkata: This May, children's cinema has become a talking point in Bengal. The latest instalment in the 'Eken' franchise —
Joydeep Mukherjee
's 'The Eken: Benaras e Bibhishika' — has seen back-to-back houseful shows at both single screens and multiplexes with families queuing up in large numbers.
Meanwhile, Saurav Palodhi's 'Onko Ki Kothin', another Bengali film featuring child protagonists, made headlines due to piracy.
The producer has approached the Kolkata Police commissioner to digitally trace those responsible for this violation of the film, which was screened as part of the Indian Panorama at the latest edition of IFFI.
City's exhibitors are delighted with the response. Suranjan Paul, owner of Minar and Bijoli, described this 'Eken' film as a 'shooting star'.
"It came and quietly became a big sensation with a barrage of queries from film lovers about show timings. We had one show each at each theatre. In the first week, the shows were houseful within minutes of opening the booking counter," Paul said.
The film's director told TOI that this is the first instance of a book being adapted into a series and then being adapted into a feature film. "Even Sujan-da (author Sujan Dasgupta) used to say that most started reading his books after the series became a hit.
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During summer holidays, a lot of kids came to watch the film. Added to that was the surprise footfall of teenagers who are otherwise hooked on Marvel comics and 'Mission Impossible' kind of movies," Mukherjee said.
Interestingly, the Eken franchise has slowly been tailored to appeal to children. "The original book was not written for kids. We tailored it into child-friendly content when kids started liking it. Eken Babu used to smoke earlier, but now he doesn't.
This film doesn't have any gory depiction of violence or use of slang, leading to its acceptance among children, teenagers, and the elderly as well," said actor Anirban Chakrabarti who plays Eken Babu in the film.
"The film's release has reignited enthusiasm in single screens across Bengal — many of which are seeing houseful shows after a long time," said Soumya Mukherjee, COO of hoichoi that co-produced the film.
Producer Rana Sarkar acknowledged that the huge success of the Eken film has prompted him to shift the release of 'OKK' by a week.
"Two franchises — Eken and Sonada — are perhaps bigger draws in Tollywood now than even Feluda and Byomkesh. Parents wait for the next instalment of these franchises so that they can take their kids to watch them. Our film is not a competitor to the Eken release. We released it on May 23 at 14 theatres including INOX-PVR, Nandan, Radha and Nazrul Tirtha, among others," Sarkar said.
On Monday, when most movies see a dip in footfall, Sarkar was shocked to see that pirated links were available on telegram. "This is a serious copyright infringement and severely impacts the business prospects of the film. I have met the commissioner of police to investigate the matter to find who did it, initiate steps to block down and take down the infringed content from sites and prevent further unauthorised distribution of the film across online platforms," Sarkar added.