Rituparna Sengupta plays 'Mahanayika'

Debutant filmmaker Saikat Bhakat has roped in National-award winning actress Rituparna Sengupta for "Mahanayika", a new Bengali film inspired by the incidents of yesteryear's diva Suchitra Sen's life.
Rituparna is essaying the lead role of Shakuntala in the film.
"It becomes difficult for a heroine to reconcile the reel and real. 'Mahanayika' has lyrical moments of despair, angst and ecstasy which happened in the lives of Suchitra Sen and every other reigning actress in other parts of the world from Marilyn Monroe to Sophia Loren, even me," Bhakat told PTI.
The filmmaker said she did not take any reference from the

Books published on the life of the doe-eyed beauty, who died last year.
"I didn't take the reference of any biographer of Suchitra Sen as it (Mahanayika) is not by definition a biopic. But the film has certain incidents having similarities with her life - how she would not be cowed down by pressure and went on to carve her own niche," she said,

Initially titled as "Nayika", the director changed the title to "Mahanayika" thinking about Sen's super stardom.
"I had initially named the film Nayika but then as I dwelt on the conflict, the inner struggle and strife involving a heroine like Suchitra Sen who became a diva I rechristened it as Mahanayika," he said.

Actor Indraneil Sengupta dons the role of a detective Priyabrata Roy. Saheb Bhattacharya plays the role of a childhood friend of Shakuntala and a film producer with whom her relation later turns sour.