Roy Kapur films announce biopic on Sukumar Sen, India’s first Chief Election Commissioner

The mathematician-turned-civil-servant from Bengal played a major role in India’s first step towards democracy

Published 04.06.24, 05:18 PM

Image courtesy: @roykapurfilms/Instagram

With 64.2 crore people voting in 2024, the Indian general elections are a big, complicated, multilayered affair. Back in 1951, when the newly independent India took its first steps towards democracy, one man played a pivotal role — mathematician Sukumar Sen.

Sen’s story is reminiscent of the places intelligence can take you. He started his career as a mathematician after studying at Presidency University and the University of London, before West Bengal’s first CM Bidhan Chandra Roy helped appoint him as the first Chief Election Commissioner of independent India. Sen presided over India’s first General Elections, helping 175 million people cast their first vote. Little is known about Sen’s life, and his story has never made it to any mass media — until now.

Siddharth Roy Kapur has acquired the rights to Sukumar Sen’s story and will be producing an upcoming biopic on the civil servant, under Roy Kapur Films. As election fever gripped the nation and we await the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the production house announced the project through an Instagram post, paying tribute to the man as his dreams continued to live on in the eyes of every citizen who cast a vote in the last month. We are looking forward to the story of Sen and the ‘biggest experiment in democracy in human history’ (as he is said to have dubbed the first elections) to be materialised on the big screen.