National Award winner Ujjwal Chatterjee, who is helming a trilingual film produced by Priyanka Chopra’s company on the relationship between Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and his English teacher Annapurna Turkhud, has submitted a revised version of the script to Visva Bharati University for consideration.
“I have submitted the revised script,” Chatterjee told IANS.
According to Visva Bharati Acting Vice Chancellor Swapan Datta, the revised version will be sent for scrutiny to poet and noted Tagore scholar Sankha Ghosh. “They (filmmakers) have submitted revised version, it will be circulated to our members and will be finally put up to Sankha Ghosh,” Datta informed.
Visva Bharati had earlier recommended the removal of certain “intimate scenes.” Chatterjee had agreed to chop off one scene.
Annapurna Turkhud, also known as Anna or Annabai, was the daughter of Atmaram Pandurang Turkhud, a Mumbai-based doctor. Tagore had stayed with the family prior to his first voyage to Britain in 1878 and took lessons in spoken English from Anna.
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He gave her the nickname Nalini, which Anna later used as a pseudonym for her writing. She inspired some of Tagore’s early poetic expressions. Tagore never forgot Anna, and was said to reminisce about her in his old age.
The film will portray the platonic relationship between the two. A scene in this Marathi-Bengali-English film shows Nalini kissing her fiance as Tagore looks on, while in another Nalini kisses Tagore on the cheek.
“Actually we have to retain the scene where Nalini kisses her fiance because its documented. The other scene will be removed,” Chatterjee had said.
Image: Wikimedia Commons