National award-winning director Srijit Mukherji said praise or criticism cannot alter the type of stories he wants to narrate.

Mukherji, who has recently made two short films in the anthology ‘Ray’on maestro Satyajit Ray’s birth centenary on Netflix triggering both barbs and praises, has said that he will not waver from his narrative style or readaptation technique in the wake of negative reactions.

The‘Gumnaami’ director had made ‘Forget Me Not’ and ‘Bahrupiya’ in the four-film series ‘Ray’, PTI reported from Kolkata.

Affirming that he will not waver from his own narrative style or readaptation technique in the wake of such negative reactions, the filmmaker told PTI, “Praise or criticism cannot actually alter the type of stories I want to tell and the way I tell them.”

“I have always been kind of open-minded. I am open to criticism, I try to learn but at the end of the day I go by my instinct in terms of storytelling,” Mukherji, whose debut feature film ‘Autograph’was a super hit, said.

“So I guess that is something that is going to continue,” he added.

Mukherji, whose upcoming Bengali web series ‘Robindronath Ekhane Kawkhono Khete Aashenni’ (REKKA) will be streamed from August 13 on a leading Bengali OTT platform Hoichoi, said storytelling elements are different in OTT and feature films for the big screen.

“Storytelling on OTT is not the same as storytelling in (feature) films, which is basically why OTT is a brilliant option. OTT gives you an alternative timeline, space, to structure narrative you want to unfold and the plot,” the maker of ‘Feluda Pherot’ web series said.

Now set to unveil his second web series in Bengali in ‘REKKA’, he said: “Definitely OTT is a very exciting development. It is an alternative medium for expressing oneself. So I think for directors it is a fantastic conduit for storytelling. I am personally enjoying it a lot, I think a lot of directors will welcome it with open arms.”

About‘REKKA’, he said the novel by Mohammad Nazim Uddin has already been touted as one of the best Bengali thrillers of recent times, and “I was very keen on adapting it”.

“This title is something given by the author of the original novel… and I have used the acronym. The setting has shifted to this part of Bengal having twists obviously, which are organic and plot-driven,” he said.

About helming the Taapsee Pannu-starrer sports drama, ‘Shabaash Mithu’, the biopic of Mithali Raj, captain of the Indian women’s cricket team and a legend in herself, Mukherji said: “Cricket has always been my first love, So it is obviously dream project.”

“Really looking forward to it. And yes sports and sports biopic have for long fascinated me. This was a very very apt opportunity,” Mukherji who came on board to helm the biopic, which was earlier being directed by Rahul Dholakia, gushed.

Mukherji had three years back bought the rights to Swapna Barman’s story, the heptathlete who won gold in the 2018 Asian Games but the film is yet to materialise.