Kalankini Kankabati

Kalankini Kankabati (Bengali pronunciation: [kɔlɔŋkini kɔŋkaboti] transl. Kankabati is Stigmatized) is a 1981 Indian Bengali-language epic period action drama film directed by Uttam Kumar and Pijush Basu. Produced by Subrata Mukherjee and Sutanu Chatterjee under the banner of Beena Films, the film is based on a novel of the same name by Nihar Ranjan Gupta. It plots the tragedy of a royal family, where the love affairs of each king with courtesans consequent their cursed lives.

The film stars Sharmila Tagore in dual roles as the titular role and her mother, alongside Kumar himself, Mithun Chakraborty and Supriya Devi in lead roles. Principal photography of the film commenced in April 1980 and wrapped by in December 1980. Music of the film is composed by R. D. Burman, with lyrics penned by Swapan Chakraborty. Predominantly shot in Jhargram and Bankura, portions of the filming took places in Kolkata and Mumbai. The cinematography of the film is handled by Bijoy Ghosh, while Baidyanath Chatterjee edited the film.

Basu, who was the only director of the film initially, died in April 1980; later Kumar stepped into the direction, who was only starring in the film that time. In July 1980, Kumar also died during the production, which led his voice from the original footages to keep intact in the film, due to the incompletion of dubbing his portions.

Kalankini Kankabati was primarily planned for release on 12 September 1980, coinciding with Durga Puja. After a languishment in production hell for eleven months, it was theatrically released on 7 August 1981. Opening to highly positive response both critically and commercially, the film emerged as the highest-grossing Bengali film of 1981, and ran for over 26 weeks in theatres.