Whispers of the Wall: Autobiography of Palace
- Doozy Studioz
- Apr 8
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 12
There are locations that serve a film.
And then there are those that become the film.
In 2018, an opportunity came to Doozy Studioz via our co-founder and cinematographer, Suvadeep. We were offered to create a promotional film for the 250-year-old Itachuna Rajbari—a heritage palace tucked away in the folds of rural Bengal, holding centuries of silence between its bricks.
The initial plan was straightforward. Travel to Itachuna, shoot a montage-heavy promotional piece, return to Kolkata, and build a commercial story around it. But fate—and the palace—had other plans.
The moment we stepped in with our crew, something shifted.
Every corridor had a whisper.
Every wall had a breath.
Every old wooden door creaked open like it had been waiting to be seen again.
It was unlike any shooting experience I’ve ever had. Itachuna didn’t need our lens to look beautiful—it already was. But the more we filmed, the more I felt it wasn’t just visuals I was capturing, it was a soul.
After we wrapped, We returned to Kolkata with a hard drive full of footage, and a mind full of feelings I couldn’t yet translate. Days passed. I was chilling with friends one evening in Beltala, South Kolkata, with the usual chaos of the city around us, when a thought erupted—what if the palace is narrating her own story? What if the film is not about her, but by her?
The idea was electric.
I wrote the narration in 30 minutes, like someone else was dictating it through me. I called Souvik da, who was nearby and a part of the shooting crew. I read it out. I still remember the pause at the other end, and then a sudden glow in his voice—like he saw what I saw.
That’s when the actual creative journey began.
The edit came together, sculpted around the idea that this palace was a sentient being—aware of her own decay, her own legacy, her own time-defying existence. Chandraniv Ghosh began with the sound design. But the true aural alchemy happened when Saptak Sanai Das also joined the project. This was our very first collaboration—and what a beginning it was.
Sanai and Chandra created a soundscape that breathed with the visuals, echoing through the halls, the shadows, and the silences. It was his music that helped the palace speak.
The result was a film not just seen but felt.
Over the years, this video traveled further than we ever expected. It found a home not just in heritage circles in India, but internationally. It was officially screened at the Afragola Film Festival in Italy, and featured at the Venice Architectural Film Festival in Greece—among many others.
What started as a low-budget promotional piece turned into one of the most defining works of Doozy Studioz—and of mine, as a writer, director, and editor.
To this day, An Autobiography of a Palace stands as proof that you don’t always need a huge budget to create something extravagant.
Sometimes, you just need to imagine beyond usual.
Please Watch the film here:
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