Celebrated director Pradeep Sarkar, who passed away here after a prolonged illness in the early hours of Friday, was working on his “dream project” at the time of his death.
Titled ‘Priya Interrupted’, it was to be the biopic of Priya Rajvansh, Hindi film actress and partner for over two decades of ‘Neecha Nagar’ maker Chetan Anand, who was awarded the Grand Prix (now Golden Palm) at the first-ever Cannes Film Festival in 1946. He then went on to co-found Navketan Film with younger brother Dev Anand in 1949.
Rajvansh’s murder on March 27, 2000, had sent shockwaves across Mumbai.
The sons of Chetan Anand — Ketan and Vivek — were convicted for committing the murder and imprisoned to life imprisonment. They were released on bail after serving their sentence for two years.
The murder was the fallout of what seemed to be a dispute over Chetan Anand’s sea-facing Ruia Park bungalow in the Juhu area, where Rajvansh lived during her relationship with the director and even after his death in 1997. Rajvansh had acted in all of Chetan Anand’s films starting from ‘Haqeeqat’.
Sarkar was expected to start shooting for ‘Priya Interrupted’ this year, according to the film’s producer, Deepak Mukul. ‘Priya Interrupted’, he said, was Sarkar’s dream project and “he had already worked out the story, set design and costumes for it”.
