Filmmaker Ram Kamal Mukherjee wants to recreate historical tales on screen

Binodiini Ekti Natir Upakhyan starring Rukmini Maitra will be his debut Bengali feature film
Ram Kamal Mukherjee
Ram Kamal Mukherjee

When Ram Kamal Mukherjee left a lucrative career in media to pursue his passion for filmmaking, he couldn't surmise the kind of appreciation he would earn for his work. The path has been strewn with struggles, but the unrelenting optimist stuck to his dream of telling stories on celluloid. His short films Cakewalk starring Esha Deol Takhtani, Season’s Greetings, starring Celina Jaitly and Lillete Dubey, Rickshawala, and most recently Ek Dua bear imprints of Ram's creative mind. 

Now, just after the announcement of his multi-lingual South project, 1770 Ek Sangram loosely based on Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel Anandamath, Ram is back directing his first full-length feature, that too in his mother tongue -- Bengali. Starring Rukmini Maitra, the film traces Bengal's iconic theatre actress Nati Binodini's fight to establish herself in the social strata as someone more than a nautch girl.

So, finally, Binodiini Ekti Natir Upakhyan is happening. Was Rukmini Maitra always your first choice?

I wanted to make Binodiini Ekti Natir Upakhyan as my first Bengali full-length feature film. But it wasn't easy to mount the film. Unfortunately, the Bengali film industry refused to experiment and many established producers advised me to make it in Hindi. But I always wanted to tell this story in Bengali, as I believe that a language is decided by the subject that we work on. After two years of the pandemic, we finally found producers from Mumbai who supported my vision.

I wanted someone who is young, fresh, dedicated, who’s willing to take up this challenge. Rukmini has been working on her classical dance and diction for almost a year. We didn't even know if we would be able to make this film or not, but it was Rukmini who stood beside me and my entire team. As a director, I am blessed to have her as my Binodiini. 

Ram Kamal Mukherjee
Ram Kamal Mukherjee

Tell us what to expect in Nati.

The first thing I hear from industry people is that this kind of movies does not work here. So making a film like Binodiini is a huge challenge from day one. 

You can expect a different narrative and commercial treatment of a story that people from Bengal have seen on stage. Nati Binodini aka Binodini Dasi is an iconic character who holds a special place in the heart of Bengali audiences. This film will entertain the mass and also appease the class. 

While making a biopic we often tend to lengthen the film to cover all aspects of the protagonist's life. We are trying to keep it as crisp as possible. 

Ram Kamal Mukherjee
Ram Kamal Mukherjee

How difficult is it to survive as an outsider in the industry?

It's tough and I am already facing the heat. But that's how it should be. People see me as a Bollywood filmmaker because I have made all my films in Hindi. But I consider myself an Indian filmmaker and that's probably the reason why I am making films in Bengali and my other film 1770 in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. 

Being a student of history, I feel that we have such hidden gems which people should know. But for that, I need strong financial support. Unfortunately, studios want stars and stars want big directors and an obscene amount of remuneration, eventually good content gets compromised. Hope things will change for the better.  

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