Did Kiron Kher deserve the National Award for Bariwali?
The Bengali press in general, and the Anand Bazar Group in particular, are chasing Kiron Kher’s Best Actress Award with a pair of hammer and tongs. In an in-depth cover story in the Saturday colour supplement of Anand Bazar Patrika (dated 29th July, 2000), Gautam Bhattacharya has raised questions about the propriety of the Best Actress Award having gone to Kiron Kher for her performance in Bariwali. The article alleges producer Anupam Kher having lied about the dubbing of Kiron’s Bengali dialogue for the film. “The entry form for the Awards has a column where theproducer or director has to fill in a line

which asks, ‘Dubbed/ Original’. In this particular entry, the producer clearly opted for ‘original’. Therefore, our hands as jury members were tied,” says Chairperson of Feature Films Jury Gautam Ghose who expressed doubts about the ‘voice’ not being Kiron’s when he saw the film. “I at once felt that this was not Kiron’s voice. I know Kiron’s voice very well. I also guessed who the voice belonged to.

It was Rita Koiral, an actress on Bengali television and films. When I rang her up and asked whether she had dubbed for Kiron Kher’s role for Bariwali, she said yes. But when I talked to Malti Sahay about this, the DFF decided to accept the statement in the entry form and the facts of the affidavit. We had to stick to our earlier decision. Besides, there is no rule in the National Awards regulation saying that the Award cannot go to an actor whose dialogues have been dubbed by someone else.” The affidavit attached to the entry clearly shows that the voice is original and not dubbed. (See Box)
The root of the whole controversy lies in an anonymous fax from Calcutta at the DFF for the Jury members minutes before they sat down to make their final decision. The DFF chose to ignore a fax without a name to it. No questions are raised about Kiron’s performance in the film. She has reportedly given a marvellous performance. But if her voice was indeed dubbed by someone else (everyone recognises Rita Koiral’s voice in Calcutta), then, understandably, the credit of her portrayal gets essentially diluted by the fact that credit for audio part of her performance lies somewhere else. This is especially true of Bariwali.

Bonolata, the character played by Kiron, had to speak in mofussil Bengali which is not easy for anyone to pick up with ‘one year of private coaching’ which Kiron claims she took. Bonolata had also to mouth Tagorean dialogues in chaste Bengali of the turn-of-the-century for Binodini, the role she performed in Chokher Bali, the film-within-the-film. “I could not rely on Kiron to speak her dialogues in mofussil (colloquial) Bengali. This is precisely why I asked Rita Koiral to dub for her. If she had to speak ordinary Calcutta Bengali, I guess there wouldn’t have been a problem. However, I have not seen the final print that went for the awards. I have heard that her voice was re-dubbed in a Mumbai studio with Kiron’s own voice and they have even produced vouchers and invoices for the dubbing,” says an embarassed Rituparno Ghosh, director of Bariwali.

“Rituparno”, writes Bhattacharya with his tongue-in-cheek satire, “has been reduced to an unwanted ‘tenant’ in his own bari of Bariwali.Every blank in every form was been filled with Anupam Kher’s name. The print screened for the Jury was not a subtitled print. How was this permitted? Can one really believe that a director has not seen the final print of his own film sent for the National Award? Interestingly, Rituparno is also the editor of Anandalok, the film fortnightly published by the ABP group.

Kiron’s dialogues were dubbed at the state-of-the-art dubbing theatre of Channel Eight by Rita Koiral under the personal supervision of director Rituparno. Says an embittered Rita Koiral angrily, “Of course, I have dubbed for Kiron in Bariwali. Neither Kiron nor Anupam Kher had the courtesy to thank even once. It was an extremely difficult piece of work for me. I had to actually act from one frame to the next. I had to cry, match her heaves and her breathes, everything. It was not just dubbing. I strongly feel I should have got some share of the credit for the final performance on screen.” Rita Koiral, perhaps, does not know that following the Kiron Kher controversy, the Jury members have advised the DFF that from now on, if an award-winner’s dialogues have been dubbed by someone else, then the unknown voice behind the winner will also be duly recognised with a citation, but not a medal.

Both Malti Sahay, Director, DFF and KM Shahani, her immediate junior, were unavailable for comment. Kiron Kher, already known for her aggressive personality, denies the accusation directly. “It is a pack of lies. I have done my own dubbing for the film in a Mumbai dubbing studio for a fortnight. We can show you the invoices for the same. I have never heard of anyone named Rita Koiral. Please do not try to throw muck on an honour that has been a lifetime dream. You cannot wipe out my commitment like this!” Yet, she goes on to plead with the interviewer not to publish her statement in the press. Gautam Ghose feels that even now, if the Ministry receives an official complaint in writing, it will have to verify the authenticity of the affidavit.

As of this minute however, later this year, Kiron Kher will safely receive her medal from the President of India. A medal slightly tainted with the colour of a controversy that is laced with ugly questions.

There are other nagging questions too. Sudipta Chakravarty, who shares this year’s National Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Malti, Bonolata’s maid, in Bariwali, said she has not seen Bariwali even once. “I have no way of going back to find out what exactly fetched me this prestigeous award” she says with a sigh. In fact, no one in Calcutta seems to have seen Bariwali till date. There were no press previews. No private screenings. When one chased Cine Media, the PR firm entrusted with the publicity of Bariwali in Calcutta for photographs, its spokesperson said, “We have no photographs of the film. The albums were all taken to Mumbai by Anupam Kher.” Is this

because Calcuttans, - press, film industry, viewers, - would at once be able to tell that the voice of Bonolata was not Kiron’s but Rita Koiral’s? For Kiron Kher’s sake at least, does Anupam Kher have answers to these questions?

Shoma A Chatterji