Star Theatre in Hatibagan will be renamed Binodini Theatre after Binodini Dasi, the first celebrated actress of Bengali theatre who quit acting in her early 20s but had earned enormous popularity by then, chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Monday.

Within hours, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) notified the new name through a circular.

“All of you have heard about Star Theatre, very famous. I have already told the mayor (of Calcutta) that we will rename Star Theatre as Binodini Theatre. This is our decision to honour women,” Mamata said at a rally in Sandeshkhali on Monday.

The KMC’s circular said: “It is hereby notified that henceforth the Star Theatre is renamed as Binodini Theatre... all concerned are hereby requested to take proper initiative to execute for the same and to give a wide publicity for information of the citizens at large.”

Binodini Dasi or Nati Binodini was instrumental in setting up the original Star Theatre that was located on Beadon Street, but was torn down in 1931 for the expansion of Central Avenue, said theatre scholars.

“She wanted it to be named B Theatre (B for Binodini) but there was opposition against naming it after her because of her background. She was born in the red-light district of Calcutta and was apprenticed to Ganga Baiji for training in music,” said Ananda Lal, a theatre scholar and former professor of English at Jadavpur University.

“She withdrew from theatre in January 1887 and had nothing to do with it after that. There are many theories on why she quit. One theory is that she felt betrayed when the theatre on Beadon Street was not named according to her wish. There is another theory that she took the route of spirituality after Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa blessed her after watching her enact the role of Sri Chaitanya,” Lal said.

The book The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre, edited by Lal, says Binodini Dasi was “the first celebrated actress of Bengali theatre,and one of the all-time greats”.

Education minister and playwright-actor-director Bratya Basu posted on Facebook that a historical wrong was set right by renaming Star Theatre as Binodini Theatre. “Aaj pray 150 bochhor pore Binodinir proti ghota chorom shei anyay er aaj protibidhan korlen Mamata Bandyopadhyay (The injustice done to Binodini almost 150 years back has been set right today by Mamata Bandyopadhyay),” Basu wrote.

The original Star Theatre (on Beadon Street) was set up in 1883. The Star Theatre at Hatibagan, as it stands today, was set up in 1888.

“Binodini wanted a new theatre for her company. The Star Theatre was set up in 1883 with contribution from one of Binodini’s admirers, Gurmukh Rai. The company was, however, ousted from there in 1887. In 1888, they set up Star Theatre at Hatibagan, but Binodini quit acting by then. She never performed at what we see as Star Theatre today,” said Lal.