Challenge (2009 film)

Challenge is a 2009 Indian Bengali language coming of age action film co-written and directed by Raj Chakraborty and produced by Shrikant Mohta, Mahendra Soni under the banner of Shree Venkatesh Films. The film stars Dev and Subhashree Ganguly in the lead, while Rajatava Dutta, Biswajit Chakraborty, Supriyo Dutta, Kharaj Mukherjee, Laboni Sarkar play another pivotal roles. The music was composed by Jeet Gannguli and cinematography was by Somak Mukherjee.The screenplay and all the dialogues were written by N.K Salil, action sequences were designed by Judo Ramu with dance choreographed by Duraiswamy Shankaraiyaa and Baba Yadav.The plot revolves around how a college student and free-spirited boy Abir(Dev), with a remarkable sense of student's power, wins his love Pooja(Subhashree), overcoming all the obstacles created by her father.

Making Dev as a leading superstar in Bengali Cinema, the film marked a 175 day long run in the box-office. The film received highly positive response from the audiences, with the appreciation of the plot portraying the power of students, with the protagonist's fight and protest against college-ragging, Chakraborty's direction, Dev and Rajatava Dutta's performance, stylized action sequences and Gannguli's music.

Challenge established Dev as an action hero, breaking his romantic hero image. Dev's entry scene in the film is considered to be one of the finest mass scenes in the history of Bengali Cinema. The song  Bhojo Gourango (picturised on Dev) is one of the costliest songs in Bengali cinema and the song  Mahi Ve (performing Dev and Subhashree Ganguly) is the first Bengali song shot in Dubai.

Plot
Abir joins college and comes across Pooja, the daughter of a ruthless businessman. Her father is strict and conservative in taking care of Pooja and does not tolerate if anyone, directly or indirectly, disturbs or approaches Pooja. Abir is bullied by a bunch of students and he pays them back in return by beating them all up. He also confronts her father's henchmen and makes them apologize when they misbehave with him before his fight with the students. Pooja is highly impressed on seeing this and she falls in love with him. He reciprocates and the two start dating. Pooja's father finds out about their relationship and opposes it. The rest of the story is how Abir and Pooja unite after a series of problems.

Cast

 * Dev as Abir
 * Subhashree Ganguly as Pooja Sen
 * Rajatabha Dutta as Agnideb Sen, Pooja's dad, an industrialist and a local don
 * Tulika Basu as Pooja's Mom
 * Biswajit Chakraborty as Abir's Dad
 * Laboni Sarkar as Abir's Mom
 * Kharaj Mukherjee as Principal
 * Parthosarathi Chakraborty as Gopal
 * Supriyo Dutta as Karthik Da
 * Prasun Gain as Poncha
 * Pradip Dhar as Karthik's assistant
 * Abhimanyu Mukherjee as Ranjan
 * Tamal Roy Chowdhury as Pooja's maternal grandfather
 * Debranjan Nag as Bhajahari

Pre-production
After the success of Chirodini ...Tumi Je Amar (2008), Raj Chakraborty became a leading director in the industry. During the end of 2008, Sangeet Bangla reported that his next project was going to be a mass-class combo film with a strong social message, which was being written by N.K Salil. After the completion of the script, in January 2009, the film's title was revealed to be  'Challenge' with the music composed by Jeet Gannguli.

Casting
Since the initial position, Chakraborty's choice was Dev to play the protagonist in the film as he worked with him for the song  Pante Taali  in Chirodini ... Tumi Je Amar before. Subhashree Ganguly, who acted opposite Soham Chakraborty in the film Bajimaat (2008) before, was signed to play the lead opposite Dev. For an important role, Rajatava Dutta was signed and for the other supporting roles, Supriyo Dutta, Kharaj Mukherjee, Debranjan Nag, Biswajit Chakraborty and others were reported to be in.

Shooting
The filming took place in Kolkata and the outskirts of Purulia. The song  Bhojo Gourango  was shot in a hotel of Mumbai featuring Dev and the choreographer Duraiswamy Shankaraiyaa. In Dubai, the song  Mahi Ve  was shot marking the first Bengali film to be filmed there.The interval and climax action scene was shot in Purulia.

Soundtrack
Jeet Gannguli composed the music and lyrics were written by Priyo Chattopadhyay, Dipangshu Acharyaa, Abhimanyu Mukherjee, Nachiketa Chakraborty, Gautam Sushmit for Challenge. The soundtrack was a blockbuster hit upon its release and topped the music charts of Sangeet Bangla.

Redefination of Student's power with a Strong Message
In the college fight scene, Abir beats all the senior students for ragging him and the other students. This scene was relevant at that time as a number of ragging cases and dangerous consequences took places in several colleges as well as education foundations.The film also promotes the power of the students which can easily stop these types of situations.

Commence of Dev and Raj Chakraborty's frequent collaboration
The collaboration between Dev and Raj Chakraborty in various projects started from this film.This hit actor-director duo always did experiments with all of the films they did together and gave another blockbusters such as Le Chakka(2010), Dui Prithibi(2010), Yoddha(2014) and Chaamp(2018).

First film of the hit pair Dev and Subhashree
After Uttam-Suchitra, Prosenjit-Rituparna and Jeet-Koel, Dev-Subhashree became the hit and demanded pair to the masses from Challenge. It was later followed by Paran Jai Jaliya Re(2009), Romeo(2011), Khokababu(2012), Khoka 420(2013) and Dhumketu (unreleased film).

Establishment of the action hero and dancer image
The film marked the beginning of a new image of Dev, that of an action hero which would appeal to the masses, breaking the romantic hero image from his previous films such as I Love You(2007), Mon Maane Na(2008) and Premer Kahini(2008). Furthermore, fans started to call him  'Roaring Star Dev' and  'Guru' (Master) which became a new identity as well as nickname amongst the audiences. Besides, the 'Bhojo Gourango' song portrayed Dev as a mindblowing dancer with pure dancing skills.

Sequel/Spin-Off
Initially Raj Chakraborty did not want to make any second part of Challenge. But in 2012, SVF hired director Raja Chanda for an action thriller with Dev and Subhashree Ganguly in lead marking the 5th film of the pair. The title of the film was borrowed from Challenge, making it the spin-off. Subhashree Ganguly opted out due to date issues while Puja Banerjee joined in it. In the auspicious occasion of Durga Puja, the film released under the title Challenge 2 (2012) with no similarities to the previous one. Raj Chakraborty did a cameo appearance in the film.