Veteran actor Biswajit Chatterjee, a prominent name in Bengali cinema who also worked across numerous Hindi films, has addressed the most controversial episode of his acting career. Now 89 years old, the actor opened up in a recent conversation about the contentious kissing sequence filmed with actress Rekha for the 1979 release Do Shikaari. His remarks have once again brought the decades-old dispute into the spotlight across the film industry.
The Incident on the Sets of Do Shikaari
The origins of the controversy are documented in the biographical work Rekha The Untold Story, which notes that Rekha was an absolute newcomer to the film industry at the time. She was only 15 years old when she was cast opposite Biswajit Chatterjee in the project. According to those accounts, the director and the filmmaking crew never informed the teenage actress in advance about the intimate sequence. The actor unexpectedly kissed her on camera without her prior consent, leaving the young actress deeply distressed and in tears right on the set.
Biswajit Chatterjee Defends the Scene Against Contemporary Films
Reflecting on the controversy decades later, Biswajit Chatterjee remarked that revisiting that specific film in this modern era makes little sense. He argued that on-screen kisses have become completely ordinary in contemporary entertainment, suggesting that what transpired decades ago pales in comparison to modern cinema. Expressing his surprise at recent trends, the actor noted that he finds himself astonished by bedroom scenes in today's movies, explicitly pointing to the film Animal as a prime example. He added that people often bring up such issues merely to pass time and generate talk.
Shooting Disruption and the Five-Minute Claim
The severity of the incident on set was also corroborated by senior journalist Jyothi Venkatesh during a podcast appearance. According to Venkatesh, the actor delivered a lip-to-lip kiss strictly following the instructions of the film's director, which immediately brought Rekha to tears. The journalist stated that the young actress was so intensely disturbed after the take that the shooting schedule had to be called off for the day. Despite the acute distress and clear objections, the filmmakers chose to retain the controversial sequence in the final release. Furthermore, persistent media accounts have alleged that the actor lost control during the take, with the kiss reportedly dragging on for nearly 5 minutes.
Family Reaction and Subsequent Collaboration
The incident also drew criticism from within the actor's own household. Biswajit Chatterjee's daughter, Pallavi, later termed the episode wrong, expressing her view that her father should never have performed such an act on screen. When asked about their interpersonal dynamics following the fallout, Biswajit Chatterjee clarified that the episode did not completely sever their professional ties. He disclosed that he later went on to both produce and direct a motion picture featuring Rekha, indicating that the two artists eventually crossed paths again in the industry.
