Onkar Kulkarni (BOMBAY TIMES; January 22, 2020)

Pradeep Sarkar has been working on his much ambitious project, the Notee Binodini biopic. While things didn’t shape up with either Vidya Balan or Deepika Padukone, who he approached for the film based on the 19th century Bengali thespian and actress, it has been heard that he approached Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to step in. While talking to BT, Pradeep confirmed, “Aishwarya was always on my mind for the biopic. I did reach out to her a few months ago. In the first narration itself, she liked the story and has said ‘yes’ to the project.”

While Aishwarya has given a verbal nod, Sarkar hopes that she signs the dotted line as well. “I seriously think that she will,” he says.

For those unaware, Binodini Dasi started off as a courtesan at a very young age. Later, she became an actress and played her first drama role in Calcutta’s National Theatre at the age of 12 in 1874, under the guidance of its founder, Girish Chandra Ghosh.

“It is quite a tough story to crack, as there is hardly any material to read up on her. I have a person who is helping me with the research from Kolkata,” says Sarkar.

Speaking about the storyline, he adds, “It’s about a woman who wanted to become a producer. Today, we have actresses, who have launched their production houses, but here, we are talking about a different era altogether. This lady was the first person in Bengal, who had the idea of having her own theatre. What all she had to do to achieve her goal makes an interesting story. She faced a lot of ups and downs. People, who were close to her, took her for a ride. Usne bohot saare dhokhe khaaye hai. It’s a wonderful tale and I hope things fall into place.”