India, Feb. 7 -- Aditya Vikram Sengupta burst into the scene with Asha Jawar Majhe (Labour of Love) a decade ago. The near-wordless film, released in 2014, won him the National Film Award for Best Debut Film of a Director and a bunch of awards at international festivals. He followed that up with Jonaki in 2018, and then came Once Upon A Time in Calcutta, which is titled Mayanagar in Bengali. Ahead of the release of the film, which stars Sreelekha Mitra and Bratya Basu, the director caught up for an exclusive chat with HT on the film's delayed release, the connection with the city in his films and more. (Also read: Sabar Bonda review: First-ever Marathi film at Sundance is a tender, deeply moving study of queer love in rural India)

Mayana...