Soumitra Chatterjee biopic becomes a bone of contention between family members, makers

Parambrata Chatterjee’s

Abhijaan

, a biopic of legendary actor Soumitra Chatterjee, has initiated a debate on social media. The bone of contention being certain sections of the film, which, some claim, misrepresent

Soumitra

Chatterjee’s life. The actor’s relatives and close friends, especially, are not happy with the film.
We spoke to

Poulami Bose

, Soumitra Chatterjee’s daughter, to know her point of view. “I honestly don’t want to create an unnecessary controversy. My father had agreed and accepted the script, and later, acted in the film. So, I really can’t say anything there. However, I watched the film on April 16 and was hurt by the way a few things have been depicted. The film shows that my father had to bear the financial burden of my son’s treatment. That’s not true. Also, the depiction of my son’s accident is marred with inaccuracies,” she said.
Elaborating on the accident her son, Ronodeep Bose, had met with in 2017,

Poulami

said, “I am indebted to the hospital, the doctors and other staff members for their contributions. I’ll have to disagree with anything a film shows that disrespects or undermines their contributions to his journey.”
On the other hand, the film’s director, Parambrata Chatterjee, told us that he wrote the script based on interviews with Soumitra Chatterjee. “After the script was completed, it was minutely read out to Soumitra jethu and others. He heard, understood, agreed and acted in the film. He practically sanctioned the script before we started our work. So, there’s little I can do. There can be different versions of the same incident. I’ll have to stick to what Soumitra jethu approved of, simply because my film is about him,” he said.