KOLKATA: Visva-Bharati authorities today asked the makers of Nalini, a film on the "relationship" between teenaged Rabindranath Tagore and a Marathi girl, to meet the vice-chancellor and members of an experts committee before undertaking any shoot within the university campus.
"We have asked the director to meet the members of a university-appointed committee, comprising experts, and discuss the story and scenes before he can start shooting within the campus," Acting Vice-Chancellor of Visva Bharati, Sabujkali Sen, said today.
When contacted, the film director Ujjwal Chatterjee said he is scheduled to meet Sen on June 27.
"I will meet her with all documents, letters and the script. I don't foresee any problem," he said.
"The script of the film was based on written documents and extensive research had been done on the then 17-year-old Tagore's 'relationship' with Annapurna Turkhad in 1878-79. She was the daughter of a family friend, based in Maharashtra, who had taught him Western manners before his trip to the UK," Chatterjee said.
"As for any shoot within the campus, the makers of the film will have to satisfy the expert committee that the scenes will not project any contrarion view about Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and that it did not hurt the sentiments of millions of people, including us," Sen said.
Sen's predecessor acting VC Prof Swapan Kumar Dutta had okayed the script of 'Nalini', a Marathi-Bengali film, after an experts panel set up by him went through the original script and sought some changes which were carried out, Chatterjee claimed.
The eight-member committee, formed during Dutta's tenure, has Jnanpith award winning poet Sankha Ghosh, an authority on Tagore, among its members.
The committee will remain the same, Sen said.
Chatterjee said, "I have the letter of the university issued by the then VC in 2017 that they will allow us to shoot from September 2017 in the university campus. But the shooting in the campus did not take place in 2017 due to logistical reasons, he said adding that he is now confident to shoot in the campus by this September. We are aware about the sentiments involving Tagore and the sanctity of his dream place Visva Bharati where we intend to shoot some sequences," Chatterjee had said earlier.
The acting VC, who had been associated with the university for decades as a student and then as a teacher, also expressed reservations about allowing any shoot within the Visva Bharati Upasana Griho (prayer hall).
"Whatever had happened in the past, had happened. We can't allow the sanctity of the place (prayer hall) to be broken any more. Any shoot within the prayer hall can't be allowed in future," she said.
Shooting of a Bengali film was allowed in the prayer hall two years back.
Nalini is being produced by Priyanka Chopra's Purple Pebble Pictures.