On the first day of the shoot of Dev Entertainment Ventures and Pramod Films magnum opus Binodiini Ekti Natir Upakhyan, filmmaker Ram Kamal Mukherjee unveils the most iconic look of Binodini Dasi featuring Rukmini Maitra. Produced by Dev Adhikari and Prateek Chakravorty in association with Assorted Motion Pictures, this Bengali feature film had already created a buzz across the nation.
“Recreating Binodini’s era was a tough task,” says director Ram Kamal Mukherjee. “But I am thankful to my team Suchismita Dasgupta, Bithika and Mousami for their research. Since the original photograph of Binodini was not preserved properly, It was almost impossible to understand the material of the saree or even the designs of her jewellery. The team worked almost three weeks to figure out the design and the fabric,” informs Ram Kamal.
Noted costume designer Suchismita Dasgupta says, “When Ram Kamal approached me for the film, I was very excited. Binodini Dasi is an iconic character, and it would be nice to see it from a fresh perspective. Rukmini’s ‘Chaitanya’ look went viral purely because of its unique approach. I had to research fabrics and stitching patterns that would resemble the era. Since the director wanted to add sheen to the entire palate, we had to keep that aspect in mind. We have used Muslin Benarasi with traditional Bengali real gold ornaments to achieve the look,” explained Suchishmita. The red wine velvet piped blouse was customized by the costume designer. “Since we had a strict deadline, it turned out to be a nightmare! From sourcing to fitting, we just wanted Rukmini to look exactly like Binodini,” she added.
Makeup artist Bithika Benia got emotional while explaining her ordeals. “Every time I was applying makeup it was not working out. Rukmini was very particular that we get the tone right. On our third trial, we achieved what we wanted to. The idea was to keep it basic with a light sheen on her face. We applied a special face toner from London that helped us in getting the final result,” said Bitthika.
Hair stylist Mousami Chhetri had a tough time dealing with long hair. “We needed a long hair extension for Rukmini. Since she is tall, we had to customise her hair from Tirupathi Temple. The four feet tall extension has been made out of real hair, which had to match with Rukmini’s hair texture. The frontal hair look was the toughest. We applied gel, but that didn’t work. Then we tried coconut oil, and even that didn’t work. Finally, we used water spray to get this look,” shares Moushami.
Rukmini Maitra who plays Binodini says, “Even though we had quite a few hurdles to cross, I was confident that my team would succeed in recreating the look. I trusted them, and eventually my team created the magic. It took four hours of permutation and combination for them to create this look. Ram Kamal insisted that we add sheen and shimmer to make it look bright on the screen. Since we tend to go slightly matt with period drama, it was challenging for my team to add shine.”
On the first day of the shoot, Rukmini and Ram Kamal looked visibly excited. “When he said action, for a second I had a flash run-through of the entire struggle we went through. This film wouldn’t have happened without the blessings of Binodini Dasi,” summed up Rukmini.
The film also stars Rahul Bose as Ranga Babu, Kaushik Ganguly as Girish Chandra Ghosh, Gautam Halder as Dasu Neogi, Mir as Gurmukh Rai, Chandreyee Ghosh as Ganga Bai and Om Sahani as Kumar Bahadur. Soumik Halder captures the film through his lenses, while Tanmoy Chakraborty is recreating the era through his art work. Pronoy Dasgupta will be editing the film, while Soumyajit and Sourendra composes music and background score.
