Assam's first actress was lured into acting

Do you know that Assam's first actress Aideu Handique had to be lured into acting as director Jyotiprasad Agarwala had difficulty in finding a leading lady from the conservative society for the first Assamese film in the early 1930s?
And after acting, she was socially ostracised by the villagers for three years, compelled to live in the confines of her father's house and remained unmarried.
These are some of the interesting facts that find mention in a new book "The Moving Image and Assamese Culture: Joymoti, Jyotiprasad Agarwala and Assamese Cinema."
Authored by Bobbeeta Sharma, chairperson of Assam State Film Finance & Development Corporation, the book explores the inception of Assamese cinema in the context of the state's history and culture and its progress up to present times.

After contemplating making the first Assamese film, Agarwala found that apart from the huge expense involved, another pressing problem was the lack of actresses. As he was finding it difficult to get the lead actress for his film, he got an assurance from one of his acquaintances Dimba Gohain that he would help him in his hunt.
One day, Gohain took his teenage niece Aideu, who was then 13 years old, to the banks of the Brahmaputra river on the pretext that she would be taken on a ship ride, the book, published by Oxford University Press, says.

She was also told that a big house was floating on the river which had lots of people, markets etc.

"Having never seen or heard such a thing, a curious Aideu got on to the ship which had a house-like structure on its top. She thought she would return home but that was not to be and she found herself on the other side of the bank and in the Bholaguri tea estate in Tezpur in Agarwala's open-air studio Chitrabon," Sharma writes.
Aideu was very scared and started crying. When Agarwala came to know that Gohain brought her without her parents' knowledge, he soon sent a telegram to the young girl's father asking him to come and meet him. Agarwala assured him that once the shooting was over, Aideu would be securely sent home.

Her father first did not agree but after much persuasion, he ultimately gave in.