Teejan Bai: Aaliya Siddiqui: Even Nawazuddin has been a huge admirer of her work since his theatre days and has seen her performing live

It has been reported that Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Aaliya Siddiqui will produce a biopic on Chhattisgarh’s legendary folk artiste, Padma Vibhushan awardee Teejan Bai. The veteran artiste is one of the greatest exponents of Pandvani (Pandavon ki Katha in the Chhattisgarhi language), a traditional performing art form involving the narration of tales from the Mahabharata. As per sources, it was Aaliya’s idea of making a film on Teejan Bai under the banner of her production house YS Entertainment. 

This biopic will be her second outing as a producer. Aaliya has recently debuted as a producer with Holy Cow which features Sanjay Mishra, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Sadiya Siddiqui, Mukesh S Bhatt and Rahul Mittra. The film is written and directed by Sai Kabir.

Sharing her feelings, Aaliya said, “I am so blessed and grateful to god that my debut film Holy Cow has received so much love and appreciation from everyone. It is encouraging me to work harder now and bring the best projects to my audiences. And now I am working towards my dream project on legendary folk artiste Teejan Bai. I’ve always wanted to make a film on amma (Teejan Bai). Even at this age, she performs on stage for hours and doesn’t forget a single word. Even Nawaz has been a huge admirer of Teejan Bai’s work since his early days as a theatre actor and has seen her perform live."

Aaliya further added that Teejan Bai fought the norms created by society, at a time when women barely had the right to speak up and that’s admirable. The singer-performer has been awarded & honoured with India's fourth-highest civilian honor Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. "It will be my honour to make a film about her and show her life story to my audiences on the big screen. I have taken all the rights before the pandemic. And now hoping to start the shoot by the end of this year," the producer said.

The film received positive reactions and reviews from the audience and critics. This will be the first time the two of them will work together to treat their audiences with a biopic. As per reports, the script is completed and Aaliya will be doing the announcement soon about the star cast and when the shoot will start.