Feluda

Feluda is a fictional detective and private investigator created by Indian director,writer and Oscar winner Satyajit Ray. Feluda (birth name: Pradosh Chandra Mitter) resides at 21 Rajani Sen Road, Ballygunge, Calcutta, West Bengal, India. He first made his appearance in a Bengali children's magazine called Sandesh in 1965, under the editorialship of Ray and Subhas Mukhopadhyay. His first adventure was "Feludar Goendagiri". Feluda is one of the most impactful and renowned Bengali characters of all time.

Feluda is often accompanied by his cousin, who is also his assistant, Tapesh Ranjan Mitter (affectionately called Topshe by Feluda), who serves as the narrator of the stories. From the sixth story, the novel Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress), the duo are joined by a popular thriller writer, Jatayu (Lalmohan Ganguli).

Feluda has had been adapted at times, with the character been played and voiced by Soumitra Chatterjee (also voiced), Sabyasachi Chakrabarty (also voiced), Ahmed Rubel, Shashi Kapoor, Rahul Bose (BBC radio), Abir Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Santu Mukherjee (Thursday Nightsaga) and Indraneil Sengupta. Satyajit Ray directed two Feluda movies — Sonar Kella (1974) and Joi Baba Felunath (1978). Sandip Ray made a new Feluda film series (a continuation of the original series) on Feluda's adventures which started from Baksho Rahashya (1996). In this series he made ten TV films and six theatrical films in Bengali on the character. Sandip Ray also made a stand-alone Feluda film Badshahi Angti (2014) which was intended to be the first film of a reboot series featuring Abir Chatterjee, but the projects were ultimately shelved and Sandip Ray revived his original film series starring Sabyasachi Chakrabarty. On 23 December 2022, Hatyapuri was released under the banner of Shadow Films. This was the reboot to the previous Feluda film series. The film was directed by Sandip Ray and starred Indraneil Sengupta as Feluda alongside Ayush Das and Abhijit Guha as Topshe and Jatayu respectively. Within a year and a half, Nayan Rahasya was released in May 2024, produced by Surinder Films. Indraneil Sengupta, Ayush Das and Abhijit Guha reprise the role of Feluda, Topshe and Jatayu respectively.