Chapal Bhaduri

India's last and most famous female impersonator, Chapal Bhaduri, is an Indian actor working mainly in movies and theatres. He was born in 1938 in Kolkata, West Bengal, in the family of a theatre actor Tara Kumar Bhaduri and a theatre and film actress, Prava Devi. He is the youngest child in her family and has three brothers and two sisters. Chapal Bhaduri, a famous Jatra artist, theatre-based folk art that celebrates Indian mythology and history, started his acting career at the age of seven. He worked at Srirangam Theatre and played the role of Apurba in Bindur Chele by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. In 1995, he played the female role of Marjina for a Bengali theatre named Ali Baba. Due to his soft and feminine voice, he got many offers for a female role in theatre after his performance in Ali Baba.

He had worked in the Bengali theatres for many decades and was known as Chapal Rani or Queen Chapal in the theatre industry. Raja Debidas, Chand Bibi, Sultana Razia, and Mahiyashi Kaikeyi are some of the most famous theatres by Chapal Bhaduri, and he was the highest-paid Bengali theatre artist in the 1960s. He had to quit the theatre in the late 1960s after women started acting in the theatres.

Later, he worked with Kamala Production and played the role of Goddess Ma Shitala. Chapal Bhaduri's full-length role as a male for the first time was in a semi-autobiographical play, Ramanimohan, in 2006. In 2010, he appeared in a Bengali drama film, Aarekti Premer Golpo, a feature film that narrates his life on the screen. Directed by Kaushik Ganguly   Kaushik Ganguly is an Indian director who worke >> Read More... and Rituparno Ghosh Rituparno Ghosh(1963-2013) was a profound actor, d >> Read More... , the film starred Rituparno Ghosh, Chapal Bhaduri, and Indraneil Sengupta Indraneil Sengupta is an established actor as well >> Read More... , released on 24 September 2010. He also made a cameo appearance in a telefilm Ushnotar Jonne.