Pradeep Sarkar pushes Noti Binodini to 2021 due to pandemic, may kick off another film before Aishwarya Rai Bachchan-starrer
Uma Ramasubramanian (MID-DAY; September 16, 2020)

A biopic on courtesan-turned-theatre actor Binodini Dasi has captured filmmaker Pradeep Sarkar's imagination for long. The director made progress on the project earlier this year when he found his Noti Binodini — as she was famously known — in Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. However, with the Coronavirus pandemic having thwarted his plans, Sarkar says the film is likely to go on floors only after March 2021.

"The writing is in progress. While Aishwarya has given her nod, I have not approached other actors because I am waiting for the crisis to [abate]. I hope the vaccine is developed by March so that we can start shooting," says the director. The offering, seen from the lens of the protagonist who had ruled the Kolkata stage for over a decade, will trace her successful career and the men in her life.

Sarkar has simultaneously developed a psychological thriller and a dark comedy. "These two scripts are ready and bound, but I am unable to give proper narrations to actors over Zoom calls. So, we are waiting for things to open up. Before Binodini, we may [focus] on one of them," he says.