Announcement The film was announced with an announcement poster on 24 August 2023. It revealed the title of the film along with the names of the lead cast, the director, editor, cinematographer, art director, costume designer, and music composer. The poster featured many iconic elements of the Kolkata cityscape in the backdrop, including the
yellow Ambassador and the heritage
Kolkata trams.
Development The film's title,
Joto Kando Kolkatatei, has an allusion to
Satyajit Ray's "Joto Kando Kathmandute". It has multiple references to different
Feluda novels written by Satyajit Ray. Initially, the film was named
Hemenbabaur Heyali but was later changed to
Joto Kando Kolkatatei because "it isn't only about a
heyali," as per the director. In an interview, director Anik Dutta said that
Joto Kando Kolkatatei is an original story in itself and also serves as a tribute to Satyajit Ray for having the flavour of Ray's
Feluda novels. Dutta had written the script many years ago, but he couldn't start the filming owing to casting and production issues. He got the idea of making this film on Satyajit Ray's centenary year. He named his lead Topshe, because as per him, "It was easier to be Topshe than
Feluda. Feluda was too perfect, too sharp. Topshe was the boy who saw, who narrated. He was us." He mentioned that the character is inspired by, but is not the actual,
Topshe from the Feluda series. The director added in an interview that when he thought about writing a story, keeping the character of Topshe in the center, he wanted to mold the character of
Topshe from Satyajit Ray's
Feluda novels in a new way, but he couldn't write a
Feluda script owing to copyright issues. Later, he spoke with Satyajit Ray's son,
Sandip Ray, regarding the permission and copyright infringement. Receiving a green signal, he sent the partially completed script to producer Firdausal Hasan, who insisted he carry on and complete the story. but she was later replaced by
Quazi Nawshaba Ahmed, owing to Sircar's non-availability on the filming dates allotted. This film marked the Tollywood debut for Nawshaba. Director Anik Dutta saw some open letters that Nawshaba used to write in her father's memory during the end of 2022 on Facebook. Dutta made her the first informal offer via commenting under one of the open letters she has posted on Facebook. In an interview, she said that she didn't know if the "
Anik Dutta" who had offered her a role under her Facebook post was genuine or not. Later her friends told her that it's the director himself and not anyone fake. She added that the director had sent her a part of the script and asked her to record and send it to him. This online audition went on for weeks as Dutta used to send her script snippets and she continued to send her audition clips to him. After three months, she was informed that she had been selected for the film.
Pre-production In the "Nightclub Song", to recreate the authentic nightclub culture of the city and the lifestyle of the elite class of the 60s era, the director and his team—costume designer Suchismita Dasgupta and art director Ananda Adya—relied on old photographs from the 60s era shared by the Trincas owner and anecdotes that he shared with them, which he had heard from his forefathers. To suit the dressing of that era, the men were dressed in three-piece suits with bow ties, and the females were dressed in georgettes and chiffons with either pearl or diamond necklaces. The director mentioned in an interview "Apart from costumes, furniture and other light and décor pieces, appropriate crockery, cutlery, musical instruments, and many more accessories had to be procured to generate the correct ambience." The director also added "I constantly balance the expenses with the required effect so that it didn’t turn out looking tacky or fake." Suchismita Dasgupta mentioned in an interview "We have tried to follow the fashion trend from that time. We have taken references of Bengali and English movies from that time. Roja’s dress and gloves were bought at a vintage store in Oxford. We used silk saris and long and midi dresses for the female crowd, while the men wore suits or trousers and dinner jackets. Paroma Banerjee was kind enough to lend us saris from her brand Kalakriti, as her signature print saris are very retro in nature, and went perfectly with the scene." The film is based in the present day but occasionally goes back to the 1960s while solving the cues. The major part of the shooting has been done in
Kolkata, while some scenes have been shot in
Darjeeling and
Kurseong in
North Bengal. In Kolkata, the filming was done across multiple locations, including an old house in
Beleghata, which is locally known as the "Barrister bari", and
St. John's Church in Dalhousie. Scenes were also filmed at "
The Russell Exchange", an old antique shop, the "
Bourne & Shepherd" and the "Calcutta and Tribe Café". The director said that he had planned to shoot a few scenes in
Bow Barracks, but owing to some unforeseen circumstances, they had to film the scene in a studio. In
Kurseong, most of the filming was done in and around a dilapidated church. An infirmary and charitable hospital was recreated at the
Mount Hermon School in Darjeeling. A few scenes have also been filmed at the
Darjeeling Mall and
Glenary's. A pivotal sequence was shot in the tea gardens of
Gidda Hills. The entire filming was completed within a month.
Post production The post production and editing work started in early December 2023. Dutta's frequent collaborator
Arghyakamal Mitra handled the editing. On 30 August 2025, Abir completed his patch dubbing for the film. As per the storyline, since the character belongs to Dhaka, the director required an actress who could speak in the "Bangal" accent. But after completing the filming, Nawshaba couldn't come back to India owing to visa issues and hence couldn't complete the last part of her dubbing. The remaining portion of her dubbing was completed by Roja Paromita Dey. The director chose Paromita to dub for Nawshaba's character after he got to know that Paromita has her ancestral roots in Bangladesh and she is capable of speaking the Bangladeshi dialect. == Soundtrack ==