The Bengali Night

Allan (Hugh Grant) is an engineer working in 1930s Calcutta. He is invited to stay with the family of his boss, Narendra Sen (Soumitra Chatterjee) which includes his wife, Indira (Shabana Azmi) and daughter Gayatri (Supriya Pathak). Gayatri and Allan become romantically involved leading to tragedy. ==Cast==

• John Hurt as Lucien Metz • Hugh Grant as Allan • Soumitra Chatterjee as Narendra Sen • Shabana Azmi as Indira Sen • Supriya Pathak as Gayatri Sen ==Production history==

Production of the film occurred about a decade after Maitreyi Devi (the inspiration for the character Gayatri) published her version of the story Na Hanyate (originally published in Bengali). She also extracted a promise from Eliade that his version would never be published in English as long as she is alive. According to Ginu Kamani in "A Terrible Hurt:The Untold Story behind the Publishing of Maitreyi Devi," Maitreyi witnessed the making of the film "The Bengali Night," which was shot in Calcutta from 1987-88 (Eliade had died that year). Her protests culminated "in court cases against the film for insulting Hinduism and for being pornographic." The film was only shown once in India at a film festival in 1989 to mixed reviews and was never released in theaters in the U.S. The film was mostly shot at the huge Zamindar Mansion - "Gaine Bari" - of the village of Dhanyakuria and some parts were filmed at Indrapuri Studios, Kolkata. ==References==