Sohini Sarkar to play Draupadi on stage

After almost four years, actress Sohini Sarkar will be seen in a new play, Arna Mukhopadhyay’s magnum opus, Mahabharat. The rehearsals have already started and the play, a Natadha production, will be staged by the end of April this year.
“The play is divided into two parts, Pandava Paksha and Kaurava Paksha. I am obviously in the Pandava Paksha. We started our rehearsals last month,” Sohini told us.
While Sohini has not taken up any new role on stage for a while, the actress was seen regularly in Behala Batayan’s production, Abayab.Written by Kamaleswar Mukhopadhyay and directed by Naba Kumar Banerjee, the play also featured Shaheb Bhattacherjee.
The director seems to be extremely happy with Sohini’s dedication. “She has been working hard with us, without any star-like tantrum. She is rehearsing for six to eight hours — like any other member of my team,” Arna said. After his successful production Athhoi, Mahabharat has been a dream project for him. But the director went through a difficult time finding the right cast. “While I have finished working on the script, casting actors for the play is difficult,” he said. In fact, once he decided to cast Anirban Bhattacharya as Krishna. The actor too went for a few script-reading sessions. “I had planned for Anirban as Krishna. But it will be difficult for him to find time in the long run. His plate is already too full,” Arna said. Anirban played Anagra in Arna’s most acclaimed play, Athhoi.
Besides Sohini, Arna will be seen as Duryodhan in the play. Veteran theatre actor Kaushik Chatterjee will be seen as Dhritarashtra, while Arna’s mother, Sadhana Mukhopadhyay, will be portraying Gandhari. “The best news is that I convinced my mother (Sadhana Mukhopadhyay) to be a part of the play. She will be back on stage after many years,” Arna added.