Did the Rashtrapati Bhavan confuse Subhas Chandra Bose to actor Prosenjit Chatterjee? Here's the truth
Netaji's portrait by Paresh Maity and Prosenjit Chatterjee in 'Gumnami'
On Monday, hours before he addressed the nation on the eve of India's Republic Day, President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated a portrait of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The portrait was to commemorate Netaji's 125th birth anniversary which was on January 23.
The images of the inauguration were shared from President Kovind's official Twitter handle. But the post sparked a debate on Twitter almost immediately with many alleging that the portrait did not bear any resemblance to Netaji.
Many, in fact, believed that the portrait was of Bengali superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee who incidentally played the legendary leader in a film called 'Gumnami' back in 2019.
Pointing out the inaccuracy, many alleged that artists had got the wrong reference and drawn Chatterjee's portrait dressed as Netaji.
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As the tweet went viral, the govt issued a clarification, stating that artist Paresh Maity had drawn reference from an old photograph of Netaji, which in fact bore a similarity to the portrait.
Netaji's grand nephew and BJP leader Chandra Kumar Bose shared the original image and tweeted, "This is the original photograph of #NetajiSubhasChandraBose, based on which renowned artist Shri #PareshMaity has drawn the portrait which was unveiled at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 23 Jan 2021, by Hon’ble President of India-Shri Ram Nath Kovind ji. @rashtrapatibhvn"
Filmmaker Srijit Mukherji, who directed Chatterjee in 'Gumnami' too clarified that the actor's look in 'Gumnami' was also modeled around the same photograph. Mukherji went on to credit makeup artist Somnath Kundu for recreating the look with such accuracy in his film. "The following is the picture on the basis of which the painting at Rashtrapati Bhawan was painted by Paresh Maity. For any similarity of Prosenjit's look to this photo, the credit goes to Somnath Kundu. #Gumnaami @prosenjitbumba"
Actor Prosenjit Chatterjee too weighed in and congratulated Paresh Maity for the portrait. Would like to congratulate Paresh Maity for the wonderful piece of art in remembrance of our National hero Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. As an Actor,I’m elated that people thought,that the painting resembles my character in Gumnami,dir. by @srijitspeaketh and prosthetics by Somnath," Chatterjee tweeted.
According to reports, Bose’s grand-niece Jayanti Bose Rakshit had given Maity the photograph for reference.
