Some stories stay with a reader long after the final page. For filmmaker Srijit Mukherji, Arnab Ray’s Shankhchunni is one such story.
Srijit first read the story in 2024. Over the following two years, he discussed the project with several people who also showed interest in adapting it. However, the rights were then held by another company.
As soon as those rights expired, Srijit moved quickly and acquired them through his production house Matchcut Productions. The filmmaker himself confirmed the development.
Srijit’s association with Ray’s writing is not new. The two had previously planned to work together on Mahabharat Murders, but the project did not materialise. Srijit later expressed interest in adapting Ray’s Jatrik, but that plan also did not reach the screen.
This time, however, the filmmaker has a clear plan for Shankhchunni. Whether the story will become a feature film or a series has not yet been decided.
Ray is equally enthusiastic about the collaboration. He has wanted to work with Srijit for years and had regretted that Mahabharat Murders never came to fruition.
For Ray, Shankhchunni offers another opportunity to work with the filmmaker, particularly because the story carries a distinctly Bengali atmosphere.
He believes Srijit is the right person to bring that setting and narrative to the screen.
The project therefore brings together a long-standing creative ambition, an earlier collaboration that never materialised and a story that has stayed with Srijit for years.
The exact form of Shankhchunni remains undecided, but its combination of horror, psychology and Bengali cultural elements has already generated curiosity.
