Actor Kangana Ranaut who is currently busy with the shooting of ‘Emergency’, is coming up with another biopic of legendary theatre artist Noti Binodini. The film will be helmed by filmmaker Pradeep Sarkar.
‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’ and ‘Padmaavat’ writer Prakash Kapadia will work on the script.
In a press statement, Kangana spoke highly of the writer-director duo and said, “I am a big fan of Pradeep Sarkaar Ji and am very happy for the opportunity. This is also my first collaboration with Prakash Kapadia Ji and am very thrilled to be a part of this remarkable journey with some of the greatest artists in the country.”
Born to prostitution, Noti Binodini started her career as a courtesan and at age twelve she played her first serious drama role in Calcutta’s National Theatre in 1874, under the mentorship of its founder, Girish Chandra Ghosh. During a career spanning twelve years she enacted over eighty roles, which included those of Pramila, Sita, Draupadi, Radha, Ayesha, Kaikeyi, Motibibi, and Kapalkundala, among others. She was one of the first South Asian actresses of the theatre to write her own autobiography. Her sudden retirement from the stage is insufficiently explained. Her autobiography has a consistent thread of betrayal.
She violates every canon of the feminine smritikatha and wrote down what amounted to her indictment of respectable society. Ramakrishna, the great saint of 19th century Bengal, came to see her play in 1884.
Noti Binodini was a pioneering entrepreneur of the Bengali stage and introduced modern techniques of stage make-up through blending European and indigenous styles.