Priyanka Chopra To Bring Rabindranath Tagore’s Love Story On Screen

Actress-producer Priyanka Chopra is all set to roll with Bengali-Marathi bi-lingual, Nalini, which will recreate Rabindranath Tagore’s real life romance

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Priyanka Chopra To Bring Rabindranath Tagore’s Love Story On Screen
From Bam Bam Bol Raha Hai Kashi in Bhojpuri and Ventilator in Marathi to Sarvann in Punjabi and the yet-to-release Sikkimese film, Pahuna, Priyanka Chopra’s production house, Purple Pebble Pictures, has been churning out one regional film after another.

Now, the actress-producer is all set to roll with another project Bengali-Marathi bi-lingual, Nalini, which will also be dubbed in Hindi. The film will be directed by National Award winning Ujjwal Chatterjee and his wife Sagarika is writing the film.

a black and white picture of rabindranath tagore
Image Source: streekaal

The film will highlight Novel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s real life romance. In 1878, Rabindranth Tagore (17) was living with Dr Atmaram Pandurang Turkhud in Mumbai, when he fell in love with Pandurang's daughter, Annapurna, a 20-year-old, who had just returned from England. Annapurna was affluent with English and went on to become Tagore's tutor. As time progressed, both got attracted to each other and intimacy developed between the teacher and the student. Tagore even gave her the name Nalini on Annapurna's insistence and immortalised her in a poem he wrote for her. Unfortunately, Tagore's father did not approve of the relationship and the liaison ended. Soon after, Nalini got married to Harold Littledale, a Scot by nationality and the couple left for England.

“It was a platonic love story and the film will narrate it from the point of view of a young student, who visits modern-day Santiniketan and sees a picture of Annapurna captioned Nalini,” says Ujjwal Chatterjee.

“Casting is in progress and the film is expected to go on the floors by October,” he adds.

Sagarika reveals that they had started writing the film in 2011 and it was expected to be a larger story with Tagore’s first love as only a part of the narrative.
priyanka chopra sweet innocent photoshoot in a black dress
Image Source: vagabomb

 “But when we met Madhu Chopra (Priyanka’s producer mother) around two years ago, they wanted to know how much of the story was factually accurate and true. I showed them my research and they agreed to produce the film. It has since materialised into a saga of unrequited love,” Ujjwal further says.

Madhu Chopra is of the opinion that a story like Nalini should reach audiences. “Priyanka wants good stories to reach audiences. Nalini has great potential and is an entertaining subject. We’re happy to be associated with it,” she states.


Thumbnail Image Source: imagesqueen & gobengal