Real Mrs Chatterjee wants repatriation of baby Ariha from Germany

Kolkata: When Sagarika Chakraborty watched Rani Mukerji-starrer Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway, a film based on her autobiography for the first time at a private screening in Mumbai, she could not control her tears.

An inconsolable Sagarika was taken back to the day in 2011 when the Norwegian Child Welfare Services took both her kids (the son 14 and the daughter 12 now) from the parents and was ordered to be kept at a foster home till they turned 18. It was the continuous fight of this Kolkata mother for three years against the Norwegian government that got the kids back to her.

Today, Sagarika understands the unbearable pain that Dhara Shah, mother of three-year-old Ariha Shah, is going through each day. Since September 2021, Ariha is in the custody of the German authorities. With the Jain family, Sagarika, too, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help in bringing Ariha back from German foster care.

“I have met the child welfare minister and others in the case of Ariha. We asked the government to expedite the process and bring back Ariha from Germany. I have seen from my own experiences how these foster cares refuse to let go of the kids,” said Sagarika.

Though the story of Sagarika is a decade old, today, she has become a household name. The Kolkata-born is elated that audiences and Bollywood (Shah Rukh Khan tweeted) are appreciating the film, especially her battle against a nation to reunite with her kids. “Whatever has been shown in the film is true. The film is based on my autobiography The Journey of a Mother. Director Ashima Chibber and her team were continuously in touch with me throughout the making of the film,” said Sagarika, who now lives in Noida and her kids with their maternal grandparents in Kolkata.

Sagarika was called an ‘unfit’ and ‘mentally deranged’ mother by the Norwegian Childcare System. “Today, I work for a company in Noida and take care of my family,” she said. Her husband, Anurup, continues to live in Norway and the mother said: “In all these years, he has never cared nor provided anything for the kids.”

However, the trauma continues to chase Sagarika and her kids, especially her son. “My daughter would be in class VII and my son in class VI. He still suffers from night terrors and needs counselling,” she said. When Rani met Sagarika for the first time, she broke down. “I wanted Rani and Anirban Bhattacharya to play the said parts in the film. Both are my favourites,” she said.

Recently, the Norwegian Ambassador to India said Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway has factual inaccuracies, but Sagarika strongly condemned the statement. “A lot happened to me in Norway but a film has a limited timeframe. Till today, they haven’t apologised to me for taking my children away and now, they are spreading lies,” she said.

Sagarika mentioned she had received invitations from film critics in Norway to visit the country she once fought against. “A journalist from Norway called up and said that Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway has become a hit there. He also said that the citizens are voicing against the Norwegian child welfare system and something positive might come out of it. I have no interest in going back to that country. I wanted the world to know what happened to me,” she said.