‘Begum Jaan’ director reveals Vidya Balan was his first choice for the film

Srijit Mukherji is all set to make his Bollywood directorial debut with ‘Begum Jaan’ which is the remake of his own Bengali film ‘Rajkahini’. The director recently revealed that he was earlier planning to make ‘Rajkahini’ a bilingual movie and Vidya Balan was the first choice to play the lead role in both the versions. But due to date issues, he had to rope in Rituparna Sengupta and made the film in Bengali.

Srijit said, “Originally, ‘Rajkahini’ was written to be a bilingual and I was supposed to cast Vidya Balan to play the role in both the films. Only after I didn’t get her dates and things didn’t work out, I thought of doing the Bengali film and approached Rituparna (Sengupta, who played the protagonist, a fierce madam of a brothel). If you watch ‘Rajkahini’ you will notice that the character of Begum Jaan has a north Indian flavour. Also, Rituparna’s Bengali was broken, because initially I wanted to make a bilingual film.”

The director is all praise for his lead actress, Vidya. Mukherji said, “There’s something about Vidya’s face, voice and body language. Frankly, if you think of such powerful roles, you can only think of Vidya or Rani Mukerji. Vidya was my first choice. I can’t think of other actors who can pull off this character.”

Vidya had seen the Bengali film even before she was offered the lead role in the Hindi remake. The actress said, “I watched ‘Rajkahini’. It is a powerful film. My role personifies feminine power in various aspects whether its sensuality, female wrath or compassion.”

The shooting of ‘Begum Jaan’ is currently going on in Patjor, a village in Jharkhand.

Also Read: Vidya Balan wears her own vintage jewellery in ‘Begum Jaan’

Murtuza Iqbal

‘Eat Sleep Bollywood Repeat’ is his life Mantra. Dance is his first love and Rani Mukerji is his eternal crush. He is someone who loves being himself, and as for the ones who don’t agree, his reply? “Talk to my hand!”