MAMATA'S HOLD ON ART-CULTURE SCENE LEAVES BENGAL GASPING

Emphasis on showcasing Trinamool's achievements has overshadowed artistic and cultural essence of festivals.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

Shooting at the iconic Tollygunge studios in Kolkata, popularly known as Tollywood, came to a grinding halt last weekend.

This came about after a section of technicians, all members of the Trinamool-backed Federation of Cine Technicians’ Workers of Eastern India (FCTWEI), decided to boycott a young director, Rahool Mukherjee.

His “crime”, technicians said, was filming parts of, “Lahu” in Bangladesh, a production registered with the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA), using technicians from that country.

Film technicians affiliated with the FCTWEI accused Mukherjee of depriving local talent by not hiring the requisite number of local technicians for his shoot in Bangladesh.

Mukherjee himself told The Sunday Guardian that “Lahu” was an India-Bangladesh production and its Bangladeshi producers decided to shift the shooting to their country after facing extortionate demands from the Tollywood guilds associated with the Trinamool-backed Federation.

The FCTWEI is an umbrella body of all sorts of people connected with the film and television industry. Trinamool Congress leader Swarup Biswas, the younger brother of Mamata Banerjee’s confidant and Cabinet Minister Aroop Biswas, is the president of the FCTWEI. Directors and actors are also members of the FCTWEI, which is considered an umbrella body.

Director Raj Chakraborty, a two-term legislator of the Trinamool Congress, and actor Deepak Adhikari, popularly known as Dev, a Trinamool Congress three-time Lok Sabha member, protested against the conditions imposed by FCTWEI. Since both are producers as well, other producers also supported them.

Several renowned Bengali film directors, like Raj Chakraborty, Srijit Mukherjee, Sudeshna Roy, Kaushik Ganguly and others gathered at the Technicians’ Studio and accused the FCTWEI of strong-arming them with stringent rules and contributing to the decaying condition of the film industry.