Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to play Binodini Dasi in Pradeep Sarkar’s next?

Director Pradeep Sarkar is prepping a biopic on courtesan-turned-theatre actor Binodini Dasi, popularly known as Notee Binodini. As per reports, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has agreed to star in the project. The film’s screenplay is being developed by scholar Shibashish Bandhopadhay. 

Binodini Dasi was born into prostitution in 19th century Bengal. She performed her first theatre role at the age of 12 at Calcutta’s National Theatre. She rose to fame under the mentorship of Girish Chandra Ghose, a leading figure in the golden age of Bengali theatre. 

It was earlier speculated that Deepika Padukone and Vidya Balan had turned down the project. However, Pradeep has clarified that he only had Aishwarya in mind for the part. Nati Binodini, a Bengali film chronicling the life of the theatre doyen, was made in 1994. The character was also played by Seema Biswas in a Hindi play. 

Aishwarya last appeared in Fanney Khan (2018), co-starring Anil Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao. She is a part of Mani Ratnam’s upcoming big-budget period film, Ponniyin Selvan.