The Bengali film and television industry finds itself in turmoil as the stalemate between the Directors’ Association of Eastern India (DAEI) and the Federation of Cine Technicians & Workers of Eastern India continues for the third day in a row.

The DAEI on Wednesday said they have asked the film technician’s body of Bengal to provide a formal statement explaining why shooting was stalled for some projects without any prior notice to the directors, calling the situation beyond “comprehension”.

The director’s body has demanded an answer from the film technician’s federation by 7pm Thursday.

The DAEI met on Wednesday evening to decide the future course of action as shooting for directors Joydeep Mukherjee and Srijit Roy’s upcoming projects were stalled since Monday. Prominent filmmakers, including Sudeshna Roy, Subrata Sen, Raj Chakrabarty, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Anirban Bhattacharya, Anindya Sarkar, Debaloy Bhattacharya, Abhishek Saha, Abhijit Guha, Manasi Sinha, Amit Das and Debpratim Dasgupta were present at the DAEI meeting.

“In just 15 days, work has been halted for three directors without any valid justification. It’s evident that someone is avoiding the conversation. We are giving them time until 7pm on February 6 to provide a proper explanation,” said DAEI chairperson Sudeshna Roy.

In a press conference after the meeting, the DAEI claimed that despite repeated inquiries, no concrete explanation has been provided by the federation as to why the shoots were suspended.

This controversy follows a similar dispute from July last year involving Rahool Mukherjee. Expressing his frustration, actor-director Anirban Bhattacharya said, “It seems like directors are no longer indispensable. Maybe the audience does not need them anymore. Perhaps they do not tell stories. It pains me deeply to say this today.”

“Even after the Chief Minister instructed last year that work should not be halted, how is this still happening? It’s beyond comprehension,” he added.

Srijit Roy has demanded that the Federation provide a legitimate explanation. “They cannot do this without notice. As per their own rules, no guild under them has the authority to take such action. We will wait until February 6 for an explanation. After that, whatever decision the directors take, Joydeep da and I will have no objections,” he said.

Subrata Sen, president of the DAEI, highlighted the financial ramifications of the ongoing stalemate. Citing the example of Kaushik Ganguly’s upcoming film Jangla, which has also run into rough weathers, he said, “It had a 32-day schedule, with Rs 1.35 crore allocated for technicians. So, who suffers the most due to this shutdown? Who is missing out on their rightful pay?”.