Vidya Balan to play writer Kamala Das in a Malayalam-Hindi project
Kamala Das who later became Kamala Surayya, was a poet, author and columnist who wrote extensively about female sexuality.
Eminent Malayalam director Kamal had stated in 2014 that he wanted to make a biopic on renowned Malayalam author Kamala Das or Kamala Surayya. The only actress whom he felt could pull off her role was Vidya Balan. Two years later, it looks like the director has managed to rope in Vidya Balan for the role.
A leading daily has quoted Kamal as saying that Vidya was one of the first actresses who explored female sexuality unapologetically in her films like Ishqiya and The Dirty Picture. He added that Vidya was the perfect choice for this role and he always had her in mind for the role. The movie is set to be a Malayalam-Hindi bilingual project.
The film is expected to take off towards the end of the year as Vidya is currently busy with several films. Director Sujay Ghosh's Kahaani 2 goes on floors in April and then the actress will work on the Hindi remake of the Bengali Partition drama, Rajkahini. This movie will be National Award winning director Srijit Mukherji's Bollywood debut.
Kamala Das who later became Kamala Surayya, was a poet, author, columnist who wrote extensively about female sexuality. She converted to Islam at the age of 67.
Director Kamal's film will explore her life story in three parts - the first part will talk about her marriage at the age of 15 to a banker; the second part about her autobiography Ente Katha (My Story); the third part about her conversion to Islam at 67 and traces of her life after that.