Claim: Chokher Bali is a Bengali romance movie from 2003.

Chokher Bali -LRB- চোখের বালি literally translated to `` sand in the eye '' , figuratively to `` constant irritant '' -RRB- is a Bengali drama film based on the novel Chokher Bali by Rabindranath Tagore . It was directed by Rituparno Ghosh in 2003 and stars Aishwarya Rai as Binodini and Raima Sen as Ashalata . Ashalata and Binodini refer to each other as Chokher Bali . The other major characters are played by Prosenjit Chatterjee as Mahendra , Lily Chakravarty as Rajlakshmi , the mother of Mahendra , Tota Roy Chowdhury as Behari , Rajlakshmi 's adopted son and Swastika Mukherjee in a cameo role . The film was later dubbed into Hindi and was released internationally in that language .   Upon release , Chokher Bali met with positive critical and box office reception .   Chokher Bali won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali and was nominated for the Golden Leopard -LRB- Best Film -RRB- award at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2003 . The film screened at the 34th International Film Festival of India on 19 October . It was the Official Selection at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2003 and was showcased in over 25 international festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival , London Film Festival , Palm Springs , Karlovy Vary and Washington DC International Film Festival besides winning the Apsara Film Producers ' Award for the Best Regional Film 2004 . Aishwarya Rai had won the Best Actress award at the Anandalok Awards 2003 .