''Rang Rasiya'' (English title: Colours of passion) is an Indian
erotic drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
based on the life of the 19th-century Indian painter
Raja Ravi Varma
Raja Ravi Varma ( ml, രാജാ രവിവർമ്മ; 29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was an Indian painter and artist. He is considered among the greatest painters in the history of Indian art. His works are one of the best examples ...
.
Made as a bilingual, the film is titled ''Rang Rasiya'' in its
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
version and ''Colours of Passion'' in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. The film, directed by
Ketan Mehta
Ketan Mehta (born 21 July 1952) is an Indian film director who has also directed documentaries and television serials since 1975.
Early life and education
Born on 21 July 1952 in Navsari in Gujarat, Mehta did his schooling from Sardar Patel V ...
, is produced by his wife
Deepa Sahi
Deepa Sahi (born 30 November 1962) is an Indian actress and producer from an Army background, who is best known for her role as Maya in the 1993 movie ''Maya Memsaab'', opposite actor Farrukh Sheikh. She made her directorial debut with the mov ...
and by Aanand Mahendroo. It stars
Randeep Hooda
Randeep Hooda (; born 20 August 1976) is an Indian actor and equestrian known for his work predominantly in Hindi cinema. Hooda made his Hindi film debut with '' Monsoon Wedding''. He had a turning point in his career with the gangster film '' ...
as the title character and
Nandana Sen
Nandana Dev Sen (19 August 1967) is an Indian-born American actress, screenwriter, children's author and child-rights activist. Her first film role in Bollywood was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ''Black'' (2005), starring Rani Mukherjee and Amitab ...
as his love interest.
Script and fictionalization
Mehta thought that Varma was the most fascinating artist of that era and his character, persona and paintings. He was fascinated with Ravi Varma right from his days at
Film and Television Institute of India
The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) is a film institute under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India and aided by the Central Government of India. It is situated on the premises of the erstwhile ...
. After reading Desai's novel, Mehta felt inspired to make a film based on the life and times of Ravi Varma, and set about formulating the story of his new film.
He moulded and recast the script to project Ravi Varma as a radical painter, a strident advocate of the artistic license to depict nudity, and as a victim of conservative society. Given that many of Ravi Varma's paintings are actually used as icons of worship in Hindu homes, this positioning represents a major stretch of the imagination, a major effort at fictionalization. In fact, Ravi Varma was himself of conservative outlook whose paintings indicate that he had a strong preference for decently clad, soft-featured, ladylike gentlewomen and a distaste for brazen hussies. Very few of his works venture into the realms of semi-nudity, and these few forays seem to have been calculated, highly reluctant efforts on his part to appeal to a western audience. Even at that time, art appreciation in the west was in the grip of a progressivist mafia who cherished radicalism and disdained traditional norms. In the present era, Ketan Mehta dealt with a similar environment in India, and this informed the choices he made while developing the script of this film. Also, a simple, lineal depiction of Ravi Varma's life and career would have given the film the look and feel of a documentary, which is what had happened with his previous film, ''
Sardar
Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar/Sirdar ( fa, سردار, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other aristocrats. It has also been u ...
''. Movies require a narrative, as also a certain amount of drama and sensuality, and the script was developed to meet these needs. Mehta came across a relatively minor (and frivolous) court case which had been brought against Ravi Varma for allegedly depicting a Hindu deity irreverent in one of his paintings, and used this to develop a suitable script.
Production
After his last commercial production ''
Mangal Pandey: The Rising'' (2005), Mehta chose to make a film on the 19th-century painter, Raja Ravi Varma's life. Incidentally both these movies were based on a subject from the 19th century. ''Rang Rasiya'' is an adaptation of the
biographical novel
The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fict ...
''Raja Ravi Varma'' authored by the
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
writer
Ranjit Desai
Ranjit loda Desai (8 April 1928 – 6 March 1992) was an Indian Marathi-language writer from Maharashtra, India. He is best known for his historical novels Swami and Shriman Yogi. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964 and the Padma Sh ...
.
Cast and crew
When Mehta first met
Nandana Sen
Nandana Dev Sen (19 August 1967) is an Indian-born American actress, screenwriter, children's author and child-rights activist. Her first film role in Bollywood was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ''Black'' (2005), starring Rani Mukherjee and Amitab ...
at her house, he saw two life-size reproductions of Raja Ravi Varma's paintings. This indicated to him that she was familiar with the artist and his works, something that he thought would make his job as a director easier. Speaking of the character she was to portray, he said:
"To me, she was the perfect woman to play the muse of an artist who sparked off debates about censorship of art. She has that child-woman quality, which was so much a part of Sugandha's personality."
The much desired controversy regarding "censorship of art" was quickly forthcoming, and Nandana was the willing lynchpin of that achievement. Among several scenes in the film that depict her in various grades of undress, one wide angle shot shows the bare breasts of a skimpily clad Nandana. The
Central Board of Film Certification
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films under the provision ...
, which
regulates the ratings and certification of media in India, duly objected to the scene, terming it nudity.
Mehta saw Hooda's previous films ''
Risk
In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environme ...
'' and ''
D''.
In this film, he played the role of Raja Ravi Varma in two phases — first as a 60-year-old and then as a 20-year-old in a span of 10 days.
As a preparation for his role, Hooda tried to learn the basics of painting. He was happy working in the film and said that his acting skills were well-groomed by Mehta's abilities.
Paresh Rawal plays an important role in the film.
Triptha Parashar, whom Mehta spotted in an advertisement, was immediately offered the role of a princess without
audition
An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performer. It typically involves the performer displaying their talent through a previously memorized and rehearsed solo piece or by performing a work or piece giv ...
ing.
Feryna Wazheir, who was born and raised in the
UK to
Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to:
* People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir
* Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley
* Kashmiri language, their language
People with the name
* Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...
parents, plays a
Parsi
Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...
girl in the film.
Sangita Kathiwada is the creative consultant and Niharika Khan, the award-winning designer is the
costume design
Costume design is the creation of clothing for the overall appearance of a character or performer. Costume may refer to the style of dress particular to a nation, a class, or a period. In many cases, it may contribute to the fullness of the arti ...
er.
Cast
*
Randeep Hooda
Randeep Hooda (; born 20 August 1976) is an Indian actor and equestrian known for his work predominantly in Hindi cinema. Hooda made his Hindi film debut with '' Monsoon Wedding''. He had a turning point in his career with the gangster film '' ...
as
Raja Ravi Varma
Raja Ravi Varma ( ml, രാജാ രവിവർമ്മ; 29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was an Indian painter and artist. He is considered among the greatest painters in the history of Indian art. His works are one of the best examples ...
*
Nandana Sen
Nandana Dev Sen (19 August 1967) is an Indian-born American actress, screenwriter, children's author and child-rights activist. Her first film role in Bollywood was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ''Black'' (2005), starring Rani Mukherjee and Amitab ...
as Sugandha
* Gaurav Dwivedi as Raj Varma
*
Vipin Sharma
Vipin Kumar Sharma is an Indian actor, editor and filmmaker. He is best known for his acting roles in '' Taare Zameen Par'' (2007), '' Gangs of Wasseypur'' (2012), ''Kick'' (2014), '' Paatal Lok'' (2020) and ''The Family Man'' (2021).
Early li ...
as Paachan
*
Paresh Rawal as Seth Govardhan Das
*
Jim Boeven
Jim Boeven (born 11 November 1967) is a German born film, television and voice actor. After establishing himself as a star in his native Germany, he moved to Los Angeles in 2007.
Early life
Boeven was born in Menden, Germany. He studied acti ...
as Fritz Schleicher
*
Feryna Wazheir as Frenny
* Rashaana Shah as Kaamini
*
Darshan Jariwala
Darshan Jariwala (born 29 September 1958) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films, television and stage. He won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Gandhi, My Father''. He is popular for his show in which he was seen as ...
as Chintamani Maharaj
*
Suhasini Mulay as Sugandha's mother Bakubai
*
Sachin Khedekar
Sachin Khedekar (born 14 May 1965) is an Indian actor and director known for his work in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Gujarati language films. His well-known films include '' Kaksparsh'', '' Astitva'' and Shyam Benegal's '' ...
as Dewanji Madhavrao
* Triptha Parashar as Poorutarthy
*
Vikram Gokhale
Vikram Gokhale (14 November 1945 – 26 November 2022) was an Indian film, television and stage actor, noted for his roles in Marathi theatre, Hindi films and television. He was the son of the Veteran Marathi theater and film actor, Chandrak ...
as Keshav Shastri
*
Sri Vallabh Vyas as Sugandha's father Hirachand
*
Tom Alter
Thomas Beach Alter (22 June 1950 – 29 September 2017) was an Indian actor. He was best known for his works in Hindi cinema, and Indian theatre. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
Early life
Born in Mussoorie ...
as Justice Richards
*
Ashish Vidyarthi as Raja Thiurmal
*
Rajat Kapoor
Rajat Kapoor (born 11 February 1961) is an Indian actor, filmmaker and playwright who works in Hindi cinema. Kapoor was born in Delhi, India. He mainly focused on acting at first. In 2013 he joined the theatre group Chingari in Delhi, later mov ...
as Auctioneer
* Shamim Ahmed Shaikh as Old Man Praying
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of ''Rang Rasiya'' is composed by
Sandesh Shandilya
Sandesh Shandilya is an Indian film composer, musician, and singer, working in Bollywood, most known for his work in films like ''Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham'' (2001), '' Chameli'', ''Road'', ''Uff Kya Jadoo Mohabbat Hai and Socha Na Tha''.
Hi ...
and lyrics are written by ''
Manoj Muntashir
Manoj Shukla (born 27 February 1976), better known by his stage name Manoj Shukla ‛Muntashir’, is an Indian lyricist, poet and screenwriter. He wrote several successful Hindi songs for films. These have included "Teri Mitti", "Galliyan", " T ...
''
Track listing
Release
The film was screened at 2008
The Times BFI London Film Festival.
''Rang Rasiya'' had been languishing in post-production from the year 2008 due to the Censor Board's objection with certain bold scenes that involved paint and nudity. It has been given a release date of 7 November 2014.
See also
*
Ananthabhadram
''Anandabhadram'' (Anand's Bhadra) is a 2005 Indian Malayalam cinema, Malayalam-language dark fantasy horror film, horror film based on the novel of the same name by Sunil Parameshwaran. The film was the debut Malayalam film venture of film direc ...
*
Makaramanju
''Makaramanju'' ( en, The Mist of Capricorn, italic=yes) is a 2011 Malayalam language romantic drama film written and directed by Lenin Rajendran. The film is about celebrated painter Raja Ravi Varma's life at a certain stage in his life. It als ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Raja Ravi Varma
Indian multilingual films
2000s Hindi-language films
Indian erotic drama films
Indian biographical drama films
2008 films
Films directed by Ketan Mehta
2000s erotic drama films
Biographical films about painters
2000s English-language films