Did you know Sisir Kumar Bhaduri’s film on Rabindranath Tagore was banned?

In 1928, iconic thespian of Bengali stage Sisir Kumar Bhaduri directed a movie named ‘Bicharak’ with cinematographer Nitin Bose which explored Rabindranath Tagore’s real-life encounters and experiences.
However, it was banned by the censor board on the grounds of low morale and indecency as the film generated quite a buzz in Bengal’s cultural world at that time.But, three years later ‘Bicharak’ returned to the screen.
The first film to be directed based on Tagore literature was Nareshchandra Mitra's “Manbhanjan” (1923), in which Tagore himself appeared in the first sequence. A few other films were also made in subsequent years, like Madhu Basu's ‘Giribala’ (1929), ‘Dalia’ (1930), and Nitin Basu's ‘Dena Paona’ (1931). In 1929, Dhirendranath Gangopadhyay started filming ‘Tapati’ in Shantiniketan, where Tagore himself was cast in the lead, but the film couldn’t be completed due to his travels abroad.
In 1931, Tagore’s dance drama ‘Natir Puja’ was transformed into a motion picture in the foregrounds of Tollygunge studio in which Tagore himself essayed the role of a partial director.