We have been the first to do quite a few things,” says Anjan Bose, the current owner of the Calcutta-based production house Aurora Film Corporation. He continues, “Among them is shooting Bhagini Nivedita in London in 1960.”
Bose’s 100-year-old office is in central Calcutta. The lobby is full of framed posters of old films — Devdas (1935), Grihadaha (1936), Mantramughdha (1949), Pathharar Kahini (1950), Paritran (1951), Mahaprasthaner Pathe (1952), Bakul (1954). There is a wooden cupboard stacked with trophies.
Bose’s grandfather Anadi Nath Bose had started Aurora. He says, “Those days it was a travelling cinema unit that screened films, dramas and magic shows. Anadi Nath used to make short silent films and news reels. In 1911, cinematographer Debi Ghosh and magician Charu Ghosh joined him and formed the Aurora Cinema Company. Together they set up a studio and a film processing laboratory.”
Aurora was the first production house in India to receive a contract from the British government to screen news reels and short films for the army during World War I. They made news reels on Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose and also produced the first children’s film Hatekhari (1939). The Aurora production Raja Rammohan (1965) was the first Bengali film to be declared tax-free by the state government.
In 1921, Anadi Nath released the company’s first silent feature-length film Dasyu Ratnakar. “It was screened at south Calcutta’s Russa Theatre, now known as Purna Cinema,” says Bose. In the following years, Aurora bought over Pramathesh Barua’s production company and made films starring Barua such as Pujari, and in later years distributed Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali and Parash Pathar.
In 1960, when Aurora made Bhagini Nivedita, a part of the film was shot in London to recreate the early life of Sister Nivedita, who is today famed as the disciple
of Swami Vivekananda. Bhagini Nivedita is a 35mm feature film. Of the 120-minute-long film, 20 minutes were shot in London.
Nivedita was born Margaret Elizabeth Noble. Inspired by her interactions with Swami Vivekananda in 1895, the Irish social activist left her home in England for India. It was here in Calcutta that she slipped into her Indian identity. She died in Darjeeling in 1911.
Almost half a century after her death, director Bijoy Bose decided to make a film on her life.
The British extra who played Bhagini Nivedita in the 1960s Bengali film
Bhagini Nivedita was a low-budget film but the plan was elaborate. Says Bose, “My uncle Arun Kumar Bose, the director Bijoy Bose and my uncle’s friend Deboprasad Dawn, also a cinema director, flew to London.”
In London, after some scouting around, they finalised four locations — a railway station, an old house, a shop and a spot on the bank of the Thames, bang opposite the British Parliament.
But here’s the thing. The two lead actors, Arundhati Devi and Asit Baran, playing Nivedita and Vivekananda, did not make the trip to London. Says Anjan Bose, “We had not flown out any crew or cast from India. Instead, a freelance cameraman Mr Taylor was hired for the shooting.” He continues, “It was he who introduced a British woman to the team. She had worked as an extra in some productions there and Bijoy Bose picked her to play Margaret Noble. Rabin Sarkar, who was a Bengali and a boxer by profession and lived in London, filled in for Asit Baran.”
For the London bits of the film, only long shots were used. Says Bose, “So, you see Nivedita with her back to the camera when she stands admiring the wedding gown in a shop window, or, when you spot her with her fiancé walking along the Thames.”
Back home in Calcutta, the hairdresser at Aurora studio, the make-up artists as well as the tailoring unit together tried to smooth out mismatches.
Bhagini Nivedita went on to get the Best Feature Film Award at the 9th National Film Awards in 1962.