By Supratik Sengupta Kolkata, Feb 25 (PTI) Director Ram Kamal Mukherjee has started filming for his biopic on theatre legend Binodini Dasi, better known as ‘Nati Binodini’, who broke all stereotypes of patriarchy in the 19th century to become the queen of Bengali stage. Binodini Dasi walked up the social ladder from being the daughter of a prostitute to making a mark for herself during those times when no girl from “respectable families” was allowed to join the profession of an actress, said Mukherjee.
The theatre icon who was born in 1862 in a Kolkata area inhabited by sex workers began acting at the age of 12 and gave it up at 23.
Extensive research is required for working on a theme like this and his team has done so, the writer-turned-director, who debuted as a filmmaker in ‘Cakewalk’ in 2019, said.
“The Bengali film, ‘Binodini – Ekti Natir Upakhyan’ (Binodini, the story of an actress), will have enough drama and conflicts,” Mukherjee told PTI.
The intensity of Binodini’s passion for her own space in the theatre world can be gauged from the fact that she became the mistress of a wealthy businessman who had agreed to sponsor the making of ‘B Theatre’ where B was supposed to denote Binodini.
However, the proposed name was later changed to Star Theatre as there were objections to christening a theatre after an actress with such background.
The celebrated theatre artist of her era, who died at the age of 78 in 1941, had also met spiritual guru Ramakrishna Paramahansa during the performance of ‘Chaitanya Leela’ and got his blessings in 1884.
“I am thankful to my writing team Priyanka Poddar and Abhra Chakraborty, along with my art director Tanmayy Chakraborty, costume designer Suchishmita Dasgupta and cinematographer Soumik Halder. We have tried to read, resource and recreate as much as we could within our budget for the film,” Mukherjee said.
During her career she had enacted over 80 roles, which included those of Pramila, Sita, Draupadi, Radha, Ayesha, Kaikeyi, Motibibi, Kapalkundala, Sri Chaitanya among others. She was one of the first theatre actresses to write her autobiography ‘Amar Katha’ and ‘Amar Abhinetri Jiban’.
In spite of her extraordinary talent, Binodini Dasi suffered social injustice and was forsaken by those close to her.
Actor Rukmini Maitra will play the lead character in the film apart from director-actor Kaushik Ganguly and Rahul Bose in the film, Mukherjee said. About casting Rukmini Maitra, he said, “I zeroed on her as she has glamour, enigma and personality to carry the weight of the character of a superstar on her shoulder. She has been working on this character for the past two years- from getting trained in Indian classical dance to attending acting workshops to get the nuances correct.” Maitra had earlier tweeted “To me this is not just cinema, but a tribute to the ‘Queen of Indian Stage’ who carved the way and inspired many generations of artists. A story untold, a woman’s journey amidst patriarchy to unfold. Need all your best wishes, blessings, Love and Support for this.” Bengali superstar Dev, a.k.a. Deepak Adhikari, is the presenter of the film.
Mukherjee said, “When Dev came to know about my story and my struggle with the film, he promised to stand beside me like a rock.” PTI SUS MM MM
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