British-Indian filmmaker Sam Bhattacharjee’s film BarunRai and the House on the Cliff has been adapted into a novel

Sakshi Sharma

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British-Indian filmmaker Sam Bhattacharjee started his career as VFX supervisor in 2016 and later set up his own studio. While his expertise has a lot to do with experience from post-production, he shares, “I always wanted to write my own movies and work as a director. It was my goal and the movie, Barun Rai and the House on the Cliff, is the first step towards it.”

The director adds, “I had plans to launch the film as a novel first and then work on the movie, but the universe had some other plans. Now, I am working on the second part and the script has been finalised.”

Sam wanted to release the novel in 2020, but due to the pandemic it got delayed and was finally released this year. However, he released the film Barun Rai and The House on the Cliff in 2021. Sam explains, “We thought of the mainstream model where we actually wanted to generate the character and gain universal perspective, and then put it up in the script. But in this case, we went out-of-the-box and the film inspired the novel.”

On collaborating with Joe Hetherington, he shares, “Initially, when the entire conversation with Joe happened, it was clear that we wanted to attain international standards. I had approached Joe on the basis of his merit and he has done great justice to the character. It was a good opportunity for both of us to collaborate.”

Sam is currently working on a film titled IRah which is about artificial intelligence. The film is in post-production stage and will be released in theatres by the end of 2023.