For Tapan, money was never the motivation or a deterrent. The opportunity to work on a Tagore story was his primary inspiration. Since his ...
For Tapan, money was never the motivation or a deterrent. The opportunity to work on a Tagore story was his primary inspiration. Since his childhood, Tagore had been a singular source of sustenance for him. That apart, the film appealed to him because it had many outdoor scenes (set against the backdrop of Afghanistan) and also a ‘non-Bengali’ protagonist, a first in Bengali cinema. Tapan would also get to work with a child actor, another first in his career.
However, the project was far from a cakewalk. Tapan said: “Mr. Charuchandra Bhattacharya was an influential member of the Visva-Bharati Music Board. He was a very conservative Tagore expert. I sent the script of Kabuliwala to him and he returned it with a ‘no’. I was young then and this infuriated me a lot. I wanted to have a meeting with him to discuss it … It was a rainy day and I could just save my script from being drenched as I reached his place … He told me, ‘What do I need to discuss? You have messed it up completely and deviated from Tagore’s path.’ I insisted that I would read 15-20 minutes of the script and then he could comment. I started...
