Playing Bhavani Pathak, who led the Fakir-Sannyasi rebellion against the British in the mid-18th century, is no easy task, given the scarce information available about the times and the man. A saint who led the resistance movement, Bhavani was an expert in all forms of martial arts and was the main guiding force behind the transformation of Prafulla into Devi Chowdhurani. Actor Prosenjit Chatterjee plays the iconic character of Bhavani Pathak in Subhrajit Mitra’s period drama, Devi Chowdhurani, which released this Puja. Excerpts:
Bhavani Pathak is an iconic character who has already been played by many before. What made you say yes to the film?
The mounting and perspective of Subhrajit’s film are distinctly different from the previous ones. While it is based on Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel, the women characters are pivotal to the film —especially the titular character played by Srabanti Chatter jee, Bibriti Chatterjee’s Nishi and Darshana Banik’s Sagar— who portray different avatars of womanhood, as well as Maa Durga, and show how they fight back in their own unique ways. I am overwhelmed by their performance. Right now, films are rarely made on lesser-known historical incidents, and especially when it is based on a book by Bankim, I knew I had to be a part of the film. Bhavani Pathak is such a towering figure in the history of Bengal’s freedom movement, yet people hardly know anything about him. So, I gladly accepted the challenge. At the time after the film was conceived, we didn’t know if we would be able to finish it because it was such a grand project, with a huge crew and shot across multiple locations. Bengali films usually have a small budget, and all of us got emotionally attached to the film.
Have you watched the previous films?
Dinen Gupta, the director of the 1974 film in which Suchitra Sen played the protagonist, was a family friend. He wanted to launch me, but that ultimately didn’t happen. But the lensing was very different in the previous films.
How did you conceive the character of Bhavani Pathak? He has a lot of action sequences too…
It is not just his physical strength, but also his willpower, knowledge, and the spirit to fight against the British power that needed to be highlighted. The action sequences are realistic, raw, not cinematic or dramatic. So, we had to go through tedious practice. But I would like to reiterate that the toughest part in an actor’s life are the internal struggles. Honestly, the most difficult part was not the action sequences but making my eyes look still and calm, come what may. There are actors who have played Bhavani Pathak before me, and I watched how they kept their eyes quiet, still, unperturbed, just like a river. My goal was to achieve that. If you notice, there’s one dialogue that went viral, “Amar naam Bhavani Charan Pathak”, just my introduction to Prafulla. That is the kind of weight the character carries. That is what I wanted to achieve.
The film took a while to be made. How do you stay so invested in a character for such a long time?
We just knew that we had to make this film happen. From reading sessions to shooting floors, there were several hurdles and delays that came along the way, which is quite normal in a multi-starrer big-budget film. During the shoot of Goutam Ghose’s Moner Manush, too, something similar happened, and we had a three-month gap between the shoots. Hence, Srijit Mukherji’s Autograph almost got shot simultaneously.
Could you tell us about your upcoming projects?
I have a project with Srijit Mukherji, which we might start shooting sometime soon. I have a Christmas release, Kakababu’s Vijanagar’er Hirey. I have also finished shooting another film that will probably get released sometime in February-March next year and I have a few Hindi projects in the pipeline, too.