Nalini, the next project of Priyanka Chopra is a love story of Rabindranath Tagore. The movie is scheduled to be shoot at Visva Bharti University, Shantiniketan. But the tough time arrived when the officials of University denied to allow the filmmaker for the shoot while stating the reason as educational environmental disruption and the storyline of the project.
In an interaction with India Today, Sabuj Kali Sen the Vice-Chancellor of the institute said: “It is a film based on Tagore's relationship with Nalini Anna Turkhud. Our objection is that they are only focusing on the love life of Tagore. We have no objection if it was a documentary film, but this is a purely commercial project,” While giving exemption on the plot, authorities said the filmmakers are free to choose any content but the decision on shooting at premises come under the university authorities.
Further, while asserting on the issue Sen said: “Why do they need to shoot inside Visva Bharati? They can shoot it at any other location. When Tagore was 17 years old, there was no Visva Bharati, he did not even dream of it. The university is meant for studies and other educational activities, not for commercial purposes. So we have to stop somewhere,”
Ujjwal Chatterjee, the filmmaker of Nalini, while opposing claimed that “I had submitted my script to Visva Bharati a year back. Former vice-chancellor Dr Swapan Dutta had created a committee headed by Shankha Ghosh to look into the proposal. The committee had approved my script and a shooting zone for the film,”
On the permission by his predecessor, the current Vice-Chancellor termed the permission as a mistake and further stated that: “There were some mistakes on the part of Visva Bharati earlier. My predecessor had given permission to a few directors for commercial films. One was on Tagore's relationship with Victoria Ocampo. This one is on Tagore and Anna Turkhud. Someone next may come up with Kadambari Devi and her suicide episode. There will be no end to this! These are not biopics but particular episodes in his life, his very private life,”
India Today reports suggest that for opposing the decision Chatterjee can go ahead with law proceedings as he told: “We have a formal letter of approval for both the script and the shoot, so we were making arrangements accordingly. Now all of a sudden they want to stop us? We plan to go ahead with the shoot as per schedule. We are taking this up with the union HRD minister,”
The barrier can be a great problem for the movie as we have already witnessed cases like Padmaavat where the filmmaker and cast were highly criticized and a massive disruption was caused for the content that film consisted. Priyanka Chopra can be in great trouble as her production house, Purple Pebbles Pictures is also indulge in the biopic. Marathi actor Vaidehi Parashurami will be her co-actor in the movie.