Biopic on TMC's 'colorful' Madan Mitra to hit screens next year

Kolkata: Madan Mitra, Known for his colourful outfits, has given the nod for a film on his four decades of political life - the first Bengali biopic that is likely to hit the screens next year.

"There was pressure for the last two years to make this biopic but I told them to wait. No one wants to hear the story of a defeated person- 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar' (The one who wins is the king). Now that I have got the verdict of the people I have told them that they can go ahead with the film," Mitra said.

It is likely that famous Bengali actor Saswata Chatterjee will play the role of Madan Mitra. Bengali director Raja Chanda who has some of the recent box office hits in his kitty will direct the film. Speaking to the media, Chanda said: "He is very colourful and that has inspired me to do the film. There are lots of untold stories that will be explored in this film."

Mitra, who after Mamata Banerjee is considered to be the most colourful and controversial personality in Bengal politics, started politics from his college days.

"I had just got admitted to Asutosh College. I was standing at the gate when a youngster with a beard came and caught hold of me. They were going to demonstrate in front of the principal and I went with them. That was the beginning of my politics.

In 1973, Mitra entered politics and became the president of the students' union of Asutosh College. Initially, he belonged to the Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi faction. In 1976, he first switched to the Somen Mitra faction and then to the Mamata Banerjee group. Mamata Banerjee founded the Trinamool Congress in 1998. In 2000, he was appointed general secretary of the party. Four years later, he became the president of the Trinamool Youth Congress.

In the 2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, Mitra was elected from the Kamarhati constituency and became the sports minister and transport minister in the first Mamata Banerjee ministry. On November 18, 2015, he resigned from the cabinet after being named as an accused in the Saradha Group financial scandal. In 2016 he lost the election to CPM candidate Manas Mukherjee but in the 2021 election Mitra regained the Kamarhati seat and is now an MLA.

"Then a lot of things have happened. I had left my job only to do politics. There was Narada and Sharada and many more things. Everything will come out in the film," Mitra added.

Madan Mitra was the first and the only Trinamool Congress minister to be in jail for 22 months in the Saradha chit fund scam but that hardly made a dent in his popularity. In the 2021 Assembly polls, he won with a thumping majority. He got arrested again by the CBI in the Narada bribery case.

Mitra, who became a social media darling over the last couple of years for his eccentric and often controversial Facebook posts, said that the shooting for the film would begin in two months.

"Madan Mitra's life is an open book. It has colour, it has light and shades. Have told director Raja Chanda that the script should not hide anything but rather bring out my entire personality -- warts and all," he said.

Mitra claimed that all aspects of his political life that began with student politics alongside Mamata Banerjee to the movement against land acquisition during the Left rule will be a part of the film.