Kolkata: New Town set to get 'Apur Sansar' park by Christmas

KOLKATA: After two parks dedicated to Satyajit Ray's 'Professor Shanku' and 'Sonar Kella' were constructed in New Town, another theme park on 'Apur Sansar' is set to come up in the township by this Christmas.
The park - which is being set up by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) on a 1.5 acre land behind Snehodiya in Action Area IB of New Town as a tribute to late actor Soumitra Chatterjee and his collaborative spirit to Ray in his film 'Apur Sansar' - will have 3D images, graphic projections, cut-out images of the film and other entertainments.
Officials said the design of the park aims to delineate the fictional story of 'Apu' with artificial water bodies, railway tracks, pathways, and seating arrangements in the park.

There will be graffiti on the walls on various characters and recurring motifs in Ray's films, in which Chatterjee has acted, and it will highlight the snippets of their collaborative journey over the years. Officials said the architectural design of the park will be based on the buildings of old Kolkata.
"The park will be an open space where people will be able to move around freely and walk beneath beautifully crafted brick arches with incomplete louvres that will depict an intangible void as it's felt in Apu's life journey in the movies," said an official.
Earlier, NKDA had selected a consultant to come up with the drawing and structural design for the park along with its landscape.
The NKDA has been setting up a number of theme parks based on Ray's works. Earlier, the authorities had converted a two-acre plot into a 'Professor Shanku' theme park and developed another plot as the 'Sonar Kella' theme park in New Town. While the 'Professor Shanku' theme park, which has been set up close to City Centre II, has zones for children, a leisure zone and attractive memorabilia on Professor Shanku on display, the 'Sonar Kella' theme park has cut-out images from the film, along with recreated models of various scenes from the movie in which Chatterjee had played the iconic character of Feluda.