Journalists vs Netizens: Netaji or Actor Prasenjit Chatterjee, Whose Portrait President Kovind Unveiled?

A picture of President Ram Nath Kovind unveiling a portrait of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on his birth anniversary at Rashtrapati Bhavan doing rounds on social media platforms, in which the portrait being unveiled is claimed to be a portrait of a Bengali actor instead of Netaji.

The netizens claim it to be a portrait of actor Prasenjeet Chatterjee, who played the character of Netaji in a 2019-documentary movie called Gumnaami, which was a biopic of the great leader. Notably, the Centre has declared that the birth anniversary of Netaji will be celebrated as ‘Parakram Divas’ from now on, to inspire the youth to follow his footsteps and act courageously against unfavorable situations.

Shortly after a picture of the President unveiling the portrait of Netaji was posted on Twitter, it went viral. Some of the netizens claimed it to be a portrait of actor Chatterjee’s outlook in the movie, while some social media pages started making memes asserting that the President might get more confused when he unveils a portrait of Bhagat Singh on his birth anniversary, as multiple actors in Bollywood have already played his role. 

However, According to several journalists, the portrait unveiled by the president on January 23 is of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, and not of actor Prosenjit Chatterjee who played Netaji in a film.

After a few reports suggested the portrait was of Bengali actor Prosenjit, several journalists reported that the portrait is based on an original image of Netaji.

Meanwhile, Terming the debate as “fake”, the central government clarified that the portrait of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in Rashtrapati Bhavan is based on an original photo of the freedom fighter,

BJP sources asserted that the portrait was painted by famous Padma Shri awardee artist Paresh Maity, while it was provided to the Rashtrapati Bhavan by Bose’s family. “The photo does not resemble Prosenjit at all. It is an unnecessary controversy”, said the sources.