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Hindi Nauka dubi disowned
Director Rituparno Ghosh insists that his Bengali film, an adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s famous novel, shouldn’t have been dubbed, subtitles were enough
Rituparno Ghosh is livid over the decision to dub his Bengali film
Nauka Dubi
in Hindi and release it as
Kashmakash
. He admits that from the producer’s point of view it makes good marketing sense because Hindi is the common language of North India.
“But what makes India so beautiful is that every region and province is culturally different from the other and by reaching out to a wider, national audience we’re losing out on the film’s ethnic flavour,” he argues.
The film is an adaptation of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s famous novel about two couples; the wives getting swapped following an accident on the river that causes their boat to capsize. Rituparno has brought together the granddaughters of Bengal’s matinee idol Suchitra Sen, Riya and Raima, alongside Prosenjit Chatterjee and Jisshu Sengupta.
Subhash Ghai had said that as soon as he saw the Bengali film he realised that it was an international movie. “Why should the Hindi or the metro audience be deprived of such a quality film based on Tagore’s work?" he was quoted as saying.
Rituparno is not convinced by the argument: “It should have been released only in Bengali. Those who don’t understand the language could have watched it with Hindi or English sub-titles.”
The National Award winning director doesn’t endorse the dubbed Hindi version. “Only the Bengali
Nauka Dubi
is mine, and I take full responsibility for it. Fortunately, I have an agreement with Mukta Searchlight Films that for all creative screenings, like the National Awards, only the Bengali version will be sent,” he says.
Poet-lyricist Gulzar has translated Tagore’s lyrics in Hindi, without making any changes in the tunes. Rituparno has no complaints on the score. “Gulzar bhai would call me, seeking my opinion on changes. I’ve heard the Hindi songs and he has done complete justice to Tagore’s verses. But even he was limited since
Nauka Dubi
was planned as a Bengali film.”
The film is scheduled to release of May 5 to coincide with Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary. Rituparno is not happy with the date set. May 3, 7 and 10 are polling days in West Bengal and he’d have been happier had the film opened post the elections.
