Benegal's Bose in trouble?

The depiction of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's marriage in a new film on the national hero has landed its director Shyam Benegal in controversy.

Five researchers on Bose in Bengal plan to take Benegal's Bose - The Forgotten Hero to court for showing him married in the film.

They claim they have proof that Netaji never married Austrian Emilie Schenkl, as shown in the movie.

The five researchers, who have deposed before the M K Mukherjee Commission probing the mystery surrounding Bose's whereabouts after the plane crash in 1945, have also written to the Censor Board and the secretaries of the Union home and information and broadcasting ministries voicing their protest.

Jayanta Chowdhury, one of the researchers, claimed they had 'corroborative evidence' of Netaji being unmarried.

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According to him, Netaji's application for a visa to visit China on November 23, 1939, mentioned his marital status as 'single.' Netaji's family says he married Schenkl secretly in 1937.

The researchers comprising Chowdhury, Rudrajyoti Bhattacharjee, Madhusudan Pal, Surajit Dasgupta and Nandadulal Chakraborty also urged Benegal to desist from showing that Netaji died in the 1945 air crash.

"We will move court if our suggestions are not heeded to," Chowdhury said.

The researchers question the veracity of 162 'love letters' Netaji is said to have written Schenkl.

Bose and Schenkl's daughter Anita Piaff and her husband Professor Martin Pfaff, a former member of the German parliament, have visited India several times.