Anirban Chakrabarti wishes to see Saurabh Shukla as Eken Babu

Actor Anirban Chakrabarti is all set to return as the eccentric and quirky detective, Ekendra Sen in his upcoming series Eken Babu Ebar Kolkatay. Back in his hometown Kolkata, a serial killer is on the loose and Eken Babu unwillingly has to get to the bottom of it. The series will release exclusively on Hoichoi on the occasion of Christmas.

The sixth season of Eken Babu is shot in the nooks and crannies of Kolkata and features Eken’s love for food. Sharing the best memory from the sets, Anirban told Hindustan Times at a press conference in Kolkata, “It is difficult to pick one because it’s always rad when we shoot for Eken. Now we have become a team with Joydeep da directing this franchise. Me, Somak (Ghosh) and Suhotro (Mukhopadhyay) play the trio and we have a bonding. I should give credit to our director because he is so grounded. He is so comfortable with the team that we always enjoy working. It’s always a very nice experience. It’s like having a picnic.”

But is Eken Babu aka Anirban as foodie as his reel character? He answered with a laugh, “Eken babu is a foodie, not me personally.” Anirban was joined by director Joydeep Mukherjee and Sujan Dasgupta, the writer and creator of the Eken Babu series.

Anirban rose to fame with his own detective series, Eken Babu. Being the first one always allows some sort of space to experiment, however the actor feels he cannot take the sole credit for reaching the hearts of the audience. “I can’t take the credit for creating Eken Babu. It’s the team. I need to mention that three people have only remain constant, i.e me as Eken, Sujan (Dasgupta) and Padmanabha Dasgupta who has written the scripts. The directors have changed over time and casting has changed. But, we three have remain the same. I am very happy to be a part of it, more because we were not used to a detective character like Eken. Detectives are shown mostly of a serious and heroic nature. Eken is a next door guy, unassuming. You won’t take him seriously but that’s his Unique-Selling-Point (USP)”.

If you have to pick one actor from Bollywood to play Eken, who would it be? He replied instantly, “Saurabh Shukla.”

Also read: Feluda: Sandip Ray on the sharp sleuth’s enduring charm

As much as the audience love Eken Babu, some also draw comparisons with the hit Bengali detective characters like Byomkesh Bakshi and Feluda. Does that bother Anirban? “It’s never a clash. All of the detective fiction characters have their USPs and uniqueness. Eken Babu in that way is very different from them. You can only compare things when they are similar in nature but Eken is so different, there’s no point.”