Arun Chowdhury

Bengali writer of the story behind Padosan

Arun Chowdhury wrote the Bengali story Pasher Bari ('The House Next Door'), which was filmed in Bengali in 1952 and later reworked as Padosan (1968). The story is itself regarded as an adaptation of Edmond Rostand's 1897 French play Cyrano de Bergerac: the tongue-tied suitor, the sweet-voiced friend hidden out of sight, and the girl who falls for the voice. In Padosan, Kishore Kumar sings from hiding while Sunil Dutt lip-syncs. A Telugu film of the same plot, Pakkinti Ammayi, came out in 1953.