Kangana Ranaut is set to star in a film as Bengali theatre legend Binodini Dasi, also known as Noti Binodini.

The upcoming film will be directed by Pradeep Sarkar, best known for his work on Parineeta and Mardani. The script was written by Prakash Kapadia, who also wrote Devdas and Tanhaji.

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Who was Noti Binodini?

Born in 1863, Binodini Dasi, also known as Notee Binodini, was a Bengali actress and thespian. 

She began her career as a courtesan, and at the age of twelve, she played her first serious drama role in Calcutta’s National Theatre, under the mentorship of its founder, Girish Chandra Ghosh.

Her career paralleled the rise of the proscenium-inspired form of European theatre among Bengali theatregoers. During her twelve-year career, she played over eighty characters, including Pramila, Sita, Draupadi, Radha, Ayesha, Kaikeyi, Motibibi, and Kapalkundala.

She was one of the first South Asian theatre actresses to pen her own autobiography.

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Betrayal runs across her narrative like a common thread. She wrote down what amounted to her criticism of polite society, breaking every rule of the feminine smritikatha.

In 1884, Ramakrishna, the revered saint of Bengal in the 19th century, attended her performance. She was a pioneering businesswoman on the Bengali stage who combined traditional and European cosmetics skills to bring modern ones.

She began acting at the age of 12 and finished at the age of 23.

Noti was a legendary theatre artist who helped to establish Indian theatre culture. During her 12-year career, she played 80 different characters, including Pramila, Sita, Draupadi, Radha, Ayesha, Kaikeyi, Motibibi, and Kapalkundala. She was one of the first South Asian theatre performers to pen an autobiography.

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Binodini revealed her struggles, her journey from being the child of a prostitute to becoming a stage artist, and how men promised to marry her only to turn her down later in her autobiography, Amar Katha Binodini, published in 1913.

Her story reveals how she wanted to build a theatre and tried to do so with her money, but patriarchal society conspired against her, and the theatre was eventually named Star Theater rather than B Theater. Binodini passed away in 1942.

Binodini’s life has been brought to the stage several times. However, this will be the first time in Bollywood that a film based on her will be produced.