| Devi Chowdhurani | |||||||||
| Director: | Subhrajit Mitra | ||||||||
| Screenplay: | Subhrajit Mitra
| ||||||||
| Story: | Bankim Chandra Chatterjee | ||||||||
| Based On: | Devi Chaudhurani | ||||||||
| Music: | Bickram Ghosh | ||||||||
| Cinematography: | Anirban Chatterjee | ||||||||
| Editing: | Sujay Dutta Ray | ||||||||
| Distributor: | PVR Inox Pictures | ||||||||
| Country: | India United Kingdom[1] | ||||||||
| Language: | Bengali | ||||||||
| Runtime: | 160 | ||||||||
| Budget: | [2] | ||||||||
Devi Chowdhurani is an upcoming Indian Bengali-language period action-adventure film directed by Subhrajit Mitra.[1] [3] The film is produced by Aniruddha Dasgupta and Aparna Dasgupta under the banner of ADited Motion Pictures (USA) and co-produced by Hassan Choudhury under the banner of HC Films Limited (UK).[4] Based on Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's novel of the same name, it stars Srabanti Chatterjee in the titular role, alongside Prosenjit Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Alexx O'Nell, Arjun Chakrabarty and Bibriti Chatterjee in another pivotal roles.[5] [6] Principal photography commenced in January 2024 with filming taking place in Kolkata and Purulia in West Bengal. After being delayed multiple times, the makers announced with a new poster that it would be released in May 2025.[7]
A period drama, the film follows Prafulla's journey from an innocent young girl to becoming Devi Chowdhurani, a powerful bandit queen.[8]
In August 2023, it was reported that filming would begin in March 2024. The film is produced by Aniruddha Dasgupta and Aparna Dasgupta under the banner of ADited Motion Pictures, with Hassan Choudhury as co-producer under the banner of Hc Films Limited. Devi Chowdhurani is one of the most expensive Indian Bengali films ever made, with a budget of ₹25 crore Besides directing, Subhrajit Mitra wrote the screenplay for the film based on the novel Devi Chaudhurani by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee; also wrote the dialogues. Pradyumna Kumar Swain was hired as the action choreographer.[9]
The film marks Sabyasachi Chakraborty's comeback to films.[10] [11] In January 2023, Sabyasachi Chakraborty attended the 21st Dhaka International Film Festival Bangladesh (East Bengal) as a special guest, he told the media at the film festival that "he will be retiring from films for some time".[12] [13] [14] However, Devi Choudhurani: Bandit Queen of Bengals director Subhrajit Mitra chose Sabyasachi Chakrabarty to play the role of Zamindar Haravallav Ray in May 2023. Srabanti Chatterjee will play the role of Devi Chaudhurani, while Prosenjit Chatterjee will essay Bhavani Pathak, an important character in the film.[1] Indraneil Sengupta was initially cast as Rangaraj, but actor Arjun Chakraborty was eventually roped in to portray Rangaraj.[15] [16] The film went to the floors on 27 January 2024.
The film was planned to begin shooting in November 2023, with around 250 crew members. However, delays arose and pushed the shooting to January 2024.[17] The shooting of the film began on 27 January 2024 in North Kolkata, at Jimmy Laha's house. At that time, Srabanti Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Kinjal Nanda, Darshana Banik took part in the shoot. On 28 January, crews and production team arrived in Purulia district for the remaining shoot of the first phase. Srabanti was accompanied by Bibriti Chatterjee and Arjun Chakrabarty in the shoot. Various scenes of the film were shoot at the Ajodhya Hills and its foothills in Purulia; shoot in the deep forest. Some fight scenes are captured here; in which there are fight scenes with talwar and bow and arrow. The scenes were shoot between January 28 and the first week of February at various locations in Purulia district.[18]
The second phase was shot in Birbhum and Kolkata in West Bengal, and in the states of Jharkhand and Bihar.[19] Prosenjit Chatterjee, who played the character of Bhavani Charan Pathak, joined the shoot for this phase.[18]