Devi Chowdhurani: Bandit Queen of Bengal is an upcoming Indian Bengali period film directed by Subhrajit Mitra.[2][3] It is an international co-production Bengali film, backed by film houses in India, UK and USA. The film is produced by Aniruddha Dasgupta and Aparna Dasgupta under the banner of ADited Motion Pictures (USA) and co-produced by Hassan Choudhury under the banner of Hc Films Limited (UK). The film stars Srabanti Chatterjee in the title role, alongside Prosenjit Chatterjee, while Sabyasachi Chakrabarty and Arjun Chakrabarty in pivotal roles.[4][5]
| Devi Chowdhurani: Bandit Queen of Bengal | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Subhrajit Mitra |
| Screenplay by | Subhrajit Mitra |
| Dialogues by | |
| Story by | Bankim Chandra Chatterjee |
| Based on | Devi Chaudhurani |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Anirban Chatterjee |
| Edited by | Sujay Dutta Ray |
| Music by | Bickram Ghosh |
Production companies | ADited Motion Pictures LOK Studios HC Films Moringa Studios |
Release date |
|
| Country | India |
| Language | Bengali |
| Budget | US$2.5 million[2] |
Principal photography commenced in January 2024 with filming taking place in Kolkata and Purulia in West Bengal.
Devi Chowdhurani's motion poster was unveiled at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 22. The film is slated to release in theaters in September 2024; apart from Bengali, it will be released as a dubbed version in 6 other languages— English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
Cast
- Srabanti Chatterjee as Prafullamukhi a.k.a Devi Chowdhurani[2][6][7]
- Prosenjit Chatterjee as Bhavanicharan Pathak[2][6]
- Sabyasachi Chakrabarty as Haraballabh Ray[8]
- Arjun Chakrabarty as Rangaraj[9]
- Bibriti Chatterjee as Nishi[4]
- Kinjal Nanda as Brojeswar[4]
- Darshana Banik as Sagar[4]
- Alex O'Nell
- Carl Harte
Production
Development
In August 2023, it was reported that filming would begin in November 2023.[10] The film is produced by Aniruddha Dasgupta and Aparna Dasgupta under the banner of ADited Motion Pictures, with Hassan Choudhury as co-producer under the banner of Hc Films Limited. Devi Chowdhurani is one of the most expensive Indian Bengali films ever made, with a budget of ₹20 crore.[10]
Besides directing, Subhrajit Mitra wrote the screenplay for the film based on the novel Devi Chaudhurani by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee; also wrote the dialogues. Pradyumna Kumar Swain was hired as the action choreographer.[11]
Casting
The film marks Sabyasachi Chakraborty's comeback to films.[8][12][13] In January 2023, Sabyasachi Chakraborty attended the 21st Dhaka International Film Festival Bangladesh (East Bengal) as a special guest, he told the media at the film festival that "he will be retiring from films for some time".[14][15][16] However, Devi Choudhurani: Bandit Queen of Bengal's director Subhrajit Mitra chose Sabyasachi Chakrabarty to play the role of Zamindar Haravallav Ray in May 2023. Srabanti Chatterjee will play the role of Devi Chaudhurani,[7] while Prosenjit Chatterjee will essay Bhavani Pathak, an important character in the film.[2][6] Indraneil Sengupta was initially cast as Rangaraj, but actor Arjun Chakraborty was eventually roped in to portray Rangaraj.[9][17][18] The film went to the floors on 27 January 2024.[19]
Filming
The film was planned to begin shooting in November 2023, with around 250 crew members. However, delays arose and pushed the shooting to January 2024.[10] The shooting of the film began on 27 January 2024 in North Kolkata, at Jimmy Laha's house. At that time, Srabanti Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Kinjal Nanda, Darshana Banik took part in the shoot. On 28 January, crews and production team arrived in Purulia district for the remaining shoot of the first phase. Srabanti was accompanied by Bibriti Chatterjee and Arjun Chakrabarty in the shoot. Various scenes of the film were shoot at the Ajodhya Hills and its foothills in Purulia; shoot in the deep forest. Some fight scenes are captured here; in which there are fight scenes with talwar and bow and arrow. The scenes were shoot between January 28 and the first week of February at various locations in Purulia district.[19]
The second phase was shot in Birbhum and Kolkata in West Bengal, and in the states of Jharkhand and Bihar.[20] Prosenjit Chatterjee, who played the character of Bhavani Charan Pathak, joined the shoot for this phase.[19]
Release
Devi Chowdhurani will release in theaters on Autumn 2024, along with its dubbed version in a total of 6 languages excluding the original Bengali language version.[21]
