Priyanka Chopra's production house denied permission to shoot for Tagore film in Visva-Bharati University

Looks like Priyanka Chopra's production house Purple Pebble Pictures (PPP) has landed in trouble while shooting for Nalini. The movie Nalini is based on the 'relationship' between teenaged Rabindranath Tagore and a Marathi girl, and the production house was willing to shoot the film on Visva-Bharati University's (West Bengal) campus.

As per reports, the university has refused to grant permission for on-campus shooting of Nalini.

"We have come to the decision after discussing the script with all authorities concerned, including ashramites and experts on Tagore. We can't allow the shoot of such films on the campus, it might hurt the sentiments of millions," officiating Vice-Chancellor Sabuj Koli Sen said, as quoted by PTI.

At the meeting with university officials, the director of Nalini, Ujjwal Chatterjee, was apprised of the decision. "This is an educational institution. We don't want to disrupt its environment by allowing the shooting of commercial films," Sen added.

The film is based on written documents and 'extensive research' on 17-year-old Tagore's 'relation' with Annapurna Turkhad in 1878-79, director Chatterjee had said in the past. Turkhad was the daughter of a Maharashtra-based family friend, who taught young Tagore western manners before his trip to the UK.

Chatterjee, who claimed that former officiating vice-chancellor Swapan Kumar Datta had granted him written permission for campus shoots in January, asserted that he would move Ministry of Human Resource Development for its intervention into the matter. He argued that the feature film was a Tagore biopic, which drew instances from researched documents.

To Sen's view that Nalini was a commercial film, Chatterjee told the agency, "Every film has a commercial side. But films like Nalini are artistic exercises which stem from the desire to document a part of history."

"We will take up the issue with the Centre and produce all previous correspondences with former officiating VC Swapan Kumar Datta, including the last letter on January 6," he added, and further said that Datta, as officiating VC, had given consent to the shooting on behalf of Visva-Bharati after the central university's suggestions for deleting a scene and revising the script were taken into consideration.

Ujjwal Chatterjee also went on to say that the university cannot revoke its previous consent letter under the tenure of a new officiating VC.

(With inputs from PTI)

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