In recent years, regional films have taken centre-stage, with the success of south movies showing that a strong story has a pan-India appeal. Encouraged by this, director Subhrajit Mitra is attempting his first pan-India Bengali movie, Devi Chowdhurani, which is based on the novel of the same name by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. The big-budget historical drama stars Bengali superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee, Srabanti Chatterjee and Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, and has Bollywood action director Sham Kaushal designing the stunts.     

Mitra, whose Avijatrik (2021) won the National Award for Best Bengali Feature Film, says that his period drama borrows as much from Chattopadhyay’s novel as it does from historical events. He says, “The novel narrates the journey of a village girl who eventually becomes the first Indian woman freedom fighter, in the later part of the 18th century. Bhavani Charan Pathak led the first armed revolution by Indians against the East India Company.” When reimagining the story, he could only envision Prosenjit as Pathak, a Hindu monk who took up arms to save his land.