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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Chapal Bhaduri
|birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1938}}
| birth_place = [[Kolkata]], [[West Bengal]], [[India]]
|occupation = [[Actor]]
| years_active = 1955–present
| nationalfilmawards =
| bfjaawards =
| website =
| parents = Tara Kumar Bhaduri (Father) Prava Devi (Mother)
}}

'''Chapal Bhaduri''' is the last living female impersonator in [[Bengali theatre]] and perhaps even in [[Indian theatre]].<ref name="Kolkata Bengal info">{{cite web|title=Actor Chapal Bhaduri – Biography & Professional Life Details|url=http://www.kolkatabengalinfo.com/2012/09/chapal-bhaduri-profile-wiki-theatre.html|publisher=Kolkata Bengal info|accessdate=10 November 2012}}</ref><ref name="India together">{{cite news|title=Last 'woman' on stage|url=http://www.indiatogether.org/2012/may/soc-female.htm|accessdate=10 November 2012|newspaper=India Together|date=21 May 2012}}{{Dead link|date=June 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="The Tribune">{{cite news|last=Chaterji|first=Shoma A|title=The story of Chapal Rani|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120624/spectrum/main2.htm|accessdate=10 November 2012|newspaper=The Tribune|date=24 June 2012}}</ref> He did female impersonation in [[Jatra (Bengal)|Jatra]], a form of Bengali folk theatre.<ref name="The Tribune"/> In 2010, he starred in a [[Cinema of West Bengal|Bengali Film]] ''[[Arekti Premer Golpo]]'' which was directed by [[Kaushik Ganguly]] and written by Ganguly and [[Rituparno Ghosh]].

==Early life==
He was born at [[Kolkata]]'s Kali Dutta lane, as the youngest child of Tara Kumar Bhaduri, a theatre actor and Prava Devi, a theatre actress. Later in 1939, his family moved to Badamtala Lane of Goabagan area of [[Kolkata]]. He had three brothers and two sisters. Noted actor and singer, [[Ketaki Dutta]] is Bhaduri's youngest sister. With the backing of her mother, his acting career started at the age of only seven at ''Srirangam Theatre'' [now known as ''Biswarupa'' located at Northern Kolkata] where he played the role of ''Apurba'' in [[Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay]]'s ''Bindur Chele''.<ref name="Kolkata Bengal info" /> Later in 1955, he performed in Bengali Theatre named ''Ali Baba'' where he played the female character of ''Marjina''.<ref name="The Tribune" />

==Acting career==

===Theatre===
His voice is very thin and soft and has a distinctly female tenor.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} After performing a female character in ''Ali Baba'' he was flooded with the female role in theatre.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} His performances in ''Raja Debidas'', ''Chand Bibi'', ''Sultana Razia'' and ''Mahiyashi Kaikeyi'' were big hits at that time and he became the leading lady of Bengal's jatra in the name of Chapalrani or Queen-Chapal.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} In the 1960s he was the highest paid 'actress' of [[Bengali Theatre]].<ref name="Kolkata Bengal info" /><ref name="India together" /> Chapal Bhaduri joined ''Natto Company'' in 1958. In the late sixties when women started to act in the theatre he found himself at a wrong end to cope up with the modern trend and he had to quit. In this time he worked with ''Kamala Production''. Later he started to play Goddess ''Ma Shitala''. His role in the semi-autobiographical ''Ramanimohan'', a play produced in 2006, was his first full-length role as a male character,<ref name="The telegraph">{{cite news|last=Sengupta|first=Reshmi|title=When a man plays a woman|url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060520/asp/calcutta/story_6248232.asp|accessdate=10 November 2012|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=20 May 2006}}</ref>

===Film===
He was seen in tele-film ''Ushnotar Jonne'' and the film ''[[Arekti Premer Golpo]]''. Both of these were directed by [[Kaushik Ganguly]].<ref name="Kolkata Bengal info" />

==Depictions in popular culture==
Chapal Bhaduri revived into fame after [[Naveen Kishore]] of the Seagull Foundation for the Arts had made a 44-minute documentary on the actor in 1999. [[Performing the Goddess — The Chapal Bhaduri Story]] focuses light on the man, who challenged financial penury to create a new performance — a monologue of Goddess Shitala.<ref name="The Tribune" /> A tele-film ''Ushnotar Jonne'', directed by [[Kaushik Ganguly]] also depicts part of his life. In this telefilm he made a cameo appearance. The third one is [[Arekti Premer Golpo]] (Just Another Love Story) (Bengali-English), a feature film directed by [[Kaushik Ganguly]] in which he narrates his life on camera.<ref name="The Tribune" />

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhaduri, Chapal}}
[[Category:1938 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Male actors from Kolkata]]
[[Category:Bengali theatre personalities]]
[[Category:Indian male stage actors]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian male actors]]

Chapal Bhaduri - Revision history

>InternetArchiveBot at 08:55, 30 June 2021