The shooting for yet another Bengali filmmaker’s film has stalled indefinitely as technicians hired for the shoot did not turn up at the location on Monday.
The incident comes nearly two months after filmmaker Sudeshna Roy’s shoot got cancelled as technicians walked out of the film at the alleged interference of the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India. Since the shooting of her film Swapno Holeo Satyi got cancelled in April, Roy has not returned to the sets yet.
This time, filmmaker Kingshuk De has found himself at the receiving end.
“I was apprehending this would happen from last night onwards. I called the technicians working on my film for the call time for today’s schedule. None of them answered my calls,” said De. “I had also informed the guilds involved. There was no response from them either.”
De is in the long list of filmmakers who have fallen foul of the ruling Trinamool-controlled federation, which is headed by state minister Aroop Biswas’s brother, Swarup.
Several filmmakers including Roy, De, Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Anirban Bhattacharya had supported a petition filed by filmmaker Bidula Bhattacharjee against the alleged interference of the federation in their work.
Calcutta High Court Justice Amrita Sinha had in early April issued a stricture against the federation from “interfering with the independent functioning of the petitioner in performing work and none of the fundamental right to life and livelihood and the right to carry on business”.
The trouble between the directors and federation has been ongoing for almost a year now. Twice, the filmmakers went on strikes that did not sustain for long.
“We had some questions on the rights and remit. It is almost a year and those questions have not been answered yet. Meanwhile directors are getting blacklisted. Let us see how long this will continue,” actor-filmmaker Anirban Bhattacharya said.
“It must be remembered if even a day’s shooting is not held, then those technicians who are daily wage earners are affected.”
Till about nine years ago when annually 250 films were made in Bengal, the number came down to a mere 25 last year. Many of the filmmakers attribute the constant interference of the Trinamool-run federation in the industry’s day to day functioning like specifying the number of technicians to be hired and in certain cases allegedly even mentioning particular names who can or cannot be hired.
Though some filmmakers like Gautam Ghosh had last year sought the intervention of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and truce was brought about, it was only temporary as the federation allegedly continued to issue diktats to the film directors.
De said the Calcutta High Court had directed the Information and Cultural Affairs department of the West Bengal government to ensure the filmmakers are not disturbed.
“We are writing to the I&CA department secretary to inform him what has happened,” said De.