Rani Mukherjee suffered a grave personal tragedy before filming her latest film ‘Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’ but no one knew about it, she revealed at an event. The actress believed that sharing her story before the release of the film or during promotions would have been seen as promotion tactics.
Mukherjee, who was speaking at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2023, said that she had not revealed this phase of her life before but she lost her second baby five months into her pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Maybe this is the first time I am making this revelation because in today’s world every aspect of your life is discussed publicly, and becomes an agenda for talking about your film to get more eyeballs. Obviously, I didn’t speak about this when I was promoting the film because it would have come across as me trying to speak about a personal experience that would propel the film…so, it was around the year when COVID-19 struck. It was 2020. I got pregnant with my second baby at the end of 2020 and I unfortunately lost my baby five months into my pregnancy,” she said.
Nikhil Advani, one of the producers of the film, called her within 10 days of her loss. “After I lost my baby, Nikhil (Advani) would have called me probably like 10 days later. He told me about the story and I kind of immediately… not that I had to have the loss of a child to feel the emotion but sometimes there is a film in the right time of what you are going through personally to be able for you to connect with it instantly. When I heard the story, I was in disbelief. I never thought in a country like Norway an Indian family would have had to go through,” she said.
Rani Mukherjee said that as an Indian she was enraged that such a thing was happening to an Indian mother. Her film, ‘Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’, is based on the real-life heart wrenching story of Indian couple Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya whose children were taken away by the Norway child welfare service who objected to how their two children were being raised.
The actress said that every mother has her own way of raising her children and every culture has its own way of raising children. “Nobody can question that,” she said.
She said that neither the director nor her producers knew that she lost her baby. “When they see this interview, they will be quite shocked,” she said.
Mukherjee also said that it must have been very difficult for mothers to watch ‘Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’ and thanked the viewers for all the appreciation she and her movie received.
The film, directed by Ashima Chibber, released on March 17, almost 12 years after the ordeal began for the Bhattacharyas. A diplomatic row ensued between the two countries, following which Norway gave custody of the children to Anurup Bhattacharya’s brother.
