1 / 7An old now-viral clip from a Bangla talk show reveals how Anupam Kher used his might to manipulate actress Rita Koiral, the media and the National Award jury back in 2000 for the film Bariwali.2 / 7It was the year 2000, Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali was in the running for the Best Actress and the Best Supporting Actress awards (both of which it bagged), apart from others. But then, it almost got disqualified.3 / 7The film was shot in Bangla, and was produced by Anupam Kher. It was a beautiful film. Those of us who watched it back then were instantly sucked into this world of pathos that Ghosh so masterfully created in all his cinema.4 / 7 About 15 minutes into the film, you realise that Kirron Kher talks like the late Rita Koiral, a popular Bangla film and television actress of the time.5 / 7So the role was dubbed. That should not be a problem. Frankly, we'd take dubbing over forced and distorted pronunciation any day. Koiral, however, wasn't credited. Now, that's a problem.6 / 7When the film was selected for the National Award, one of the jury members, Gautam Ghosh, a veteran Bangla director, quite like us, also realised at the screening of the film that Kirron Kher spoke like Rita Koiral.7 / 7He rang up Koiral in Kolkata and asked, 'Tui dub korechhish? Bol tahole. Jodi tui kore thakish, tor o ekta National Award paona hote pare (Did you dub for the film? Tell me then. If you have, you could also win the National Award. Apparently, dubbing artists could co-win the Best Actor/Actress National Award along with the performer. In this case, it could have been jointly won by Kirron and Rita, if only Rita admitted that she had dubbed for the role. The video that is currently going viral tells you what happened after she did. Anupam Kher, Rita goes on to say in the clip, then threatened her that if she doesn't agree, he will ensure she never finds work in Bollywood. 'I will make sure you never enter Bollywood. And I will see how you find work in Kolkata,' Rita said. The clip ends there. Kirron Kher has always maintained that it was her own voice and not Rita Koiral's in Bariwali. She apparently took a six-month language and diction course to get her Bangla pronunciation right. How at the end of the course she ended up sounding exactly like Koiral is still a mystery for cine-lovers. Anupam Kher had said back then that this controversy hurt him so much that he's decided to never produce a Bangla film.