{"id":172429,"date":"2026-03-31T11:55:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=172429"},"modified":"2026-03-31T11:55:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:55:56","slug":"a-fate-more-tragic-than-drama-heres-what-the-real-kostana-of-bora-stankovics-work-looked-like-photo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/a-fate-more-tragic-than-drama-heres-what-the-real-kostana-of-bora-stankovics-work-looked-like-photo\/","title":{"rendered":"A FATE MORE TRAGIC THAN DRAMA: Here’s what the real Ko\u0161tana of Bora Stankovi\u0107’s work looked like! (PHOTO)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There was no one in Vranje who hadn’t heard of her beauty \u2013 “red hair, white face, honey lips, enchanting hips, thighs like sails, and large eyes \u2013 like a doe’s.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how Bora Stankovi\u0107 described his Roma beauty, the singer Ko\u0161tana from Vranje, but the story says that the woman who served as his inspiration was even more than that! She sang for rich merchants, agas and begs, even kings themselves, but it did not bring her happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ko\u0161tana” is a drama by Serbian writer Borisav Stankovi\u0107. It is one of the most frequently performed and most watched plays in Serbian theaters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stankovi\u0107 first wrote this work when he was about 24 years old, but he revised it several times. The drama was first printed in its entirety in 1902 in the Serbian Literary Gazette. The final version was published as a separate book in 1924. The version from this year served for all other printings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did Malika become “Ko\u0161tana”?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

However, what most people don’t know is the fact that Stankovi\u0107’s Ko\u0161tana really existed! Her name was Malika and she was a famous Roma singer because of whom the Vranje agas and begs “lost their heads and sold off their property.” From an early age, she played and sang with her father and brother in taverns and private celebrations, and because of her beauty and charm, she became famous far and wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bora Stankovi\u0107 wrote in his work that the beauty owed her nickname to “large eyes like a doe’s.” The elders in Vranje still say that they nicknamed her that because that name has a special meaning in their region. Namely, “Ko\u0161tan” there means “chestnut,” and a firm, plump one, and Malika’s whole appearance resembled a slender, spindle-shaped chestnut tree, popular in that region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are different versions about whether Bora and Malika ever met. According to one, it happened only once \u2013 the future writer was then a high school student and came to the tavern where Malika sang only once, just to see her beauty and charms. He saw her, but they didn’t exchange a single word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to another story, the one that Bora Stankovi\u0107 later supported, growing up in Vranje, he only heard about the beautiful Roma singer because her troupe was the best and most often invited to perform in the homes of wealthy Vranje residents, but he actually never saw her before writing “Ko\u0161tana.” Their first meeting took place in a tavern in Vranjska Banja long after Bora’s “Ko\u0161tana” was already playing in theaters throughout Serbia.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ko\u0161tana sued Bora<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The enchanting Malika had everything but an easy life, and her beauty, like many before and after her, brought her only misfortune. She was forcibly married (just like in Bora’s drama) to a certain Maksut Ra\u0161itovi\u0107 and after that she was expelled from Vranje.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the beauty and fame had passed, nothing remained of Ko\u0161tana’s “tambourines full of gold coins.” She spent her life in misery and poverty in a shack on the outskirts of Vranjska Banja, raising her two sons and two daughters from her husband’s first marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ko\u0161tana’s life was reduced to begging, misery, poverty and hardship. For a cigarette and a glass of brandy in the town, she told everyone who wanted to listen about her old fame, bygone times, how she sang “Nightingale chick, don’t sing early” in King Milan’s ear and how she was “THE” Ko\u0161tana by Bora Stankovi\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probably the hard life and misery forced Malika to sue Bora Stankovi\u0107 in 1927, demanding that she receive a portion of the money from the fame of his work. She was illiterate, but the story says that a lawyer convinced her that they could extract part of the copyright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The then press talked about the case extensively, but most were openly on Bora Stankovi\u0107’s side. Ko\u0161tana came out of the dispute as a loser, humiliated and publicly ridiculed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIND OUT MORE:<\/mark><\/h4>\n\n\n\n