Thespians hail renaming Kolkata’s Star Theatre after Binodini Dasi as historic, yet futile

Iconic Star Theatre in Kolkata renamed Binodini Theatre, honoring 19th-century performer Binodini Dasi, sparking debate in theatre circles.

The iconic century-old Star Theatre, standing tall and ornate at the crossing of Aurobindo Sarani and Bidhan Sarani in North Kolkata as a monolith of Bengal’s historic theatre traditions, now carries a different name plaque — ‘Binodini Theatre’. 

A few days after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s December 30 announcement to rename Star Theatre to Binodini Theatre, all banners and plaques at the auditorium were promptly replaced to reflect the new name. While this change might seem innocuous to some, it is considered by many in Bengali’s theatre circles as historically significant — a long overdue reparation to the 19th-century theatre performer Binodini Dasi. 

According to author, theatre researcher and practitioner Suddhasatya Ghosh, the original Star Theatre, established in 1883 at 68, Beadon Street and demolished and relocated by 1930, was supposed to be named after Binodini.

“Theatre veterans of the early 19th century, like Girish Ghosh, Amritalal Basu, Ardhendu Shekhar Mustafi wanted to practise Bengali theatre autonomously, outside of zamindari patronage which was the norm before that,” Mr Ghosh said. “So they approached Binodini to court Punjabi businessman Gurmukh Rai and help fund a commercial theatre space in the heart of the city.”

He added that female theatre practitioners at the time were primarily sex workers, and would be supported as thespians by their wealthy patrons. Between the 1870s and 1880s, Binodini became a celebrated and widely popular thespian, known for her acting, singing, and dancing, and whose name alone could draw huge crowds to watch Bengali plays in Kolkata.

‘Binodini started theatre in her teens. She had a paramour she wanted to marry, but the likes of Girish Ghosh convinced her to court Mr Rai instead, who they believed could help establish an autonomous theatre space,” Mr Ghosh said. “The promise made to Binodini, however, was that the auditorium would be named after her — B Theatre or Binodini Theatre.”

He added that not only did Binodini sacrifice her love affair to help fund the theatre at Beadon Street, but she also did physical labour to help construct the auditorium.