Bengali biopic on Shishir Kumar Bhadhuri to travel to US

KOLKATA: For the first time, a biopic on the life of the pioneer of Bengali modern theatre, Shishir Kumar Bhadhuri, titled ‘Borobabu’ is being made.

The Bengali film headlined by Sujan Mukhopadhyay, as the thespian, is all set to travel to the North American Bengali Conference (NABC) 2023 in June in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Bhadhuri was mostly addressed as Borobabu by the theatre fraternity.

Considered the biggest gathering of Bengali speakers abroad, NABC programme was confined to online space in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. At the 43rd NABC convention, the trailer of director Reshmi Mitra’s much-awaited biopic on the Bengali theatre legend will be unveiled in Atlantic City. Mitra has been working on ‘Borobabu’ for the past 10 years. From his contribution to modern theatre, the film will also touch upon the conflict in his personal life, especially his relationship with Prabha Devi (Sudipta Chakraborty) and Kankabati (Payel Sarkar).

“I’m glad the film is garnering attention from the US also. In June, we will travel to NABC where the trailer will be unveiled. Shishir Kumar Bhadhuri introduced realism and naturalism to the theatre. Apart from being an actor and director par excellence, he was even a set designer who introduced realistic three-dimensional sets to the theatre. We have tried to capture his life from the age of 22 till he passed away at 69,” said the director, who read books by Bratya Basu, Sunil Gangopadhyay (Nihsanga Samrat) for her research. Also, her interaction with legendary Soumitra Chatterjee helped her to know more about the towering theatre personality.

In fact, Sujan and Sudipta both spoke about how Soumitra used to often talk about Bhadhuri, whom he considered his role model, during the shoot. “Soumitra da’s sessions on Shishir Bhadhuri were enriching. Not much is known about Prabha Devi, but I have tried to interpret her in my way,” said Sudipta, whose ‘Binodini’ act on stage is getting rave reviews.

For Sujan, the book by Basu on Bhadhuri helped him a lot to understand the revolutionary thespian.

“Here was a legend who took loans for theatre, and refused Satyajit Ray’s films. I’m really happy that a film is being finalised made on the theatre genius,” he said. This year, NABC will also see the presence of Anirban Bhattacharya, Chanchal Chowdhury, Dhrubo Banerjee and Anirban Chakrabarti.