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| “I had a wonderful meeting with Dick Parsons. He was keen to know how we make films in India and what kind of films I do. He was also interested in knowing about stardom in India,” said Rituparna Sengupta, after meeting the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Time Warner group on Wednesday. Picture by Pabitra Das |
A team from Warner Brothers will visit the city to explore the possibility of setting up an animation studio in Calcutta.
Richard Parsons, the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Time Warner group, made this clear after spending a busy bandh day in town. The high point of the visit was an hour-long meeting with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings.
“We were extremely happy to meet him. The chief minister wants us to set up a state-of-the-art animation studio here. We will discuss it and send a team shortly to explore how we can carry the proposal forward,” Parsons told Metro.
Warner Brothers is part of the New York-headquartered Time Warner group.
“The chief minister told us about his government’s success in the education sector and the talent pool here. So, he wants our expertise to set up animation academies and also state-of-the-art studios and laboratories,” added Parsons, who presented a pack of DVDs — including a Harry Potter and Gone With The Wind — to Bhattacharjee.
From the political environment in the country to the need of economic growth in Bengal for creation of jobs, Parsons discussed a host of issues with the chief minister.
Earlier in the day, Parsons got a very different version of Bengal politics during his 45-minute meeting with Mamata Banerjee in her party office-cum-residence in Tiljala.
Team Parsons — including John Huey, editor-in-chief, Time Inc.; Vivek Shah, president, Fortune Money Group; Tom Peter Wolff, senior vice-president (international), Time Warner; Alvin Lee, director, international relations and public policy (Asia Pacific) — landed in a Gulfstream aircraft on Wednesday morning and drove straight to the Trinamul Congress office.
Mamata explained to Parsons the reason behind Wednesday’s bandh and gifted him five of her paintings and a copy of the party mouthpiece, Jaago Bangla.
“I am extremely impressed with her. She is a courageous lady,” said Parsons.
Over lunch, Parsons interacted with industrialist Sanjiv Goenka, actress Rituparna Sengupta and others from the field of arts.
As he criss-crossed Calcutta during the bandh hours, Parsons was surprised by how deserted the city looked. “There were hardly any people on the streets… There was an eerie silence all around.”
Thursday morning could be very different.