Kangana Ranaut to play theatre superstar Noti Binodini in Pradeep Sarkar directorial
As Kangana Ranaut readies up for the release of Indira Gandhi biopic, she has announced her next big outing. On Wednesday, the actor announced that she has signed up to play Noti Binodini, one of the most iconic theatre superstars from Bengal.
The mega-budget film will be helmed Parineeti fame Pradeep Sarkar. It’s written Prakash Kapadia, who has films like Tanhaji, Padmavat, Devdas and Black to his credit. There was a buzz in early 2020 that Aishwarya Rai will play the role in the biopic.
Expressing her excitement over the new project, Kangana shared in a statement, “I am a very big fan of Pradeep Sarkaar ji and very happy for this opportunity. Also, this will be my first collaboration with Prakash Kapadia ji and I am completely thrilled to be part of this remarkable journey with some of the greatest arts of this country”.
Kangana’s team informed that she will kick start shooting for the film early next year, after wrapping up Emergency. Apart from playing former prime miner in the political drama, the actor is also directing it.
On the work front, Kangana Ranaut also has military drama Tejas and the mythological film Sita The Incarnation in the pipeline.
Who was Noti Binodini?
Born Binodini Dasi, she was raised among sex workers and started her career as a courtesan. She stepped on the stage at the age of 12, in Calcutta’s National Theatre in 1874, under the mentorship of Girish Chandra Ghosh. She took early retirement at the age of 24. Followers of her work still claim that the reason of bidding goode to acting were insufficiently explained her. During a career spanning twelve years, she has enacted in over eighty roles, which included those of Pramila, Sita, Draupadi, Radha, Ayesha, Kaikeyi, Motibibi, and Kapalkundala, among others. Ramkrishna Paramahamsa is also said to have attended one of her plays in 1884. One of her iconic roles include playing the holy saint Chaitanya. She passed away at the age of 41.
Noti Binodini is noted as a pioneer entrepreneur of Bengali theatre and introduced modern techniques of stage make-up blending European and indigenous styles. She was also one of the first South Asian actors from theatre to have written her own autobiography, titled Amar Katha (My Life, 1912) and Amar Abhinetri Jibon (My life as an actress, 1924-25). In her books, she mentioned her tragic life experiences and also opened up about the dark side of the male-dominated profession. She raised questions on pay disparity, objectification audiences and even co-actors and also about the poor conditions at work. Kolkata’s popular Star Theatre was constructed for her a businessman, who took her as his mress. The theatre at Sovabazar still carries the ‘B’ carving on its white marble walls. A number of documentaries, films, and even a TV show on her life have already been helmed in the past.
