Anshua and Prerna with their French teacher Chai Eng Dutta at Calcutta International School. Picture by Aranya Sen

J?ai deux amours? mon ville et Paris (I have two loves? my city and Paris). This was the subject on which Prerna Choudhury and Anshua Ghosh had to write a poem ? in French ? to impress the organisers of an international contest in France. The two Calcutta girls did that and followed it up with a film script that will now take one of them to the city of the Louvre.

It all started with Chai Eng Dutta, a French teacher of Calcutta International School, receiving a mail from TV5 Monde, the international French language channel, soliciting participation in a contest organised jointly by the channel, Ville de Paris (the mayor?s office) and La Federation Internationale des Professeurs de Francais, the umbrella body of French teachers.

?Since it was open to students 14 to 18 years of age, I made the announcement in three classes. It was only these two, comprising the Class XI batch, who took up the challenge,? recalls Dutta.

The ask was to pen a poem in French on one?s own city, inspired by a composition from a given set of poems and songs on Paris. What followed was a struggle to match poetic and linguistic skills to produce the Calcutta answer to Fabrice Aboulker?s song Paris. The result was Calcutta, spiced with chai, muri and phuchka. They also submitted a photographic collage of the city.

The contest website describes how the jury whittled 76 classes from 21 countries to the final 15. The finalists were divided into three teams of five countries each, which would write the script for a film called Paris ? Ville du monde (Paris ? city of the world).

?We had visualised a scenario where Marie Antoinette, revived from history, would throw exploding cakes at people. We also thought of superheroes from each country. Our hero would be Hanuman,? the two chirp.

Ultimately it was the Portuguese team, voted the group leader, which shaped the script. ?In the film, the world is in danger due to intolerance. They have representatives from each country exploring Paris in search of a talisman that would be activated by five words, representing each country, and save the world,? explains Dutta. The shooting of the film, to be telecast on TV5, will take place in June.

?To decide who gets to go, we called the girls? parents and suggested a draw of lots. Antara?s father drew Prerna?s name,? says school principal Anuradha Das.