Roopa Ganguly slipped into Draupadi mode on Sunday evening, not to curse the Kaurava brothers but to battle the Biswas brothers.

'Despite being outsiders, they are interfering in almost every aspect of the industry,' the actress-cum-BJP member thundered after a party workers' meeting in Baghajatin.

'The minister Aroop Biswas and his brother Swarup are trying to dictate policies at every level of the industry.... They have crossed all limits,' she warned.

Later in the evening, she explained to Metro why she was so angry at the politicisation of the film industry by the ruling party, led in this case by The Brothers Biswas.

Metro decodes what the points raised by Roopa mean for her and for Tollywood.

If you are not with them you must be against them, and then god save you!

According to Roopa, the artistes and technicians who have refused to dance to the tune of the Trinamul Congress leadership are denied opportunities and access, roles and recognition. Directors and producers are pressured into casting or dropping actors depending on their Trinamul allegiance. Which actor will be invited to which function and who will be felicitated (or not) on which platform, are all decided by a coterie that has the chief minister's ear.

'I was recently denied my personal make-up artiste and hair-dresser for Satarupa Sanyal's film Apala because Satarupa had hired a few technicians from BROTA (Broadcast Quality Video Technicians and Workers Association of West Bengal). The Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India (of which Swarup Biswas is now the president) told my make-up artiste that he must not work with me as that was against the rule. When he asked the federation secretary to give it in writing he was refused. Such petty politics has increased since I became a member of the BJP,' said Roopa.

While Roopa was never a part of the 'TMC camp' since the party came to power in 2011, fellow actress Locket Chatterjee was very much in the party fold. Till recently when she stormed out of the party and joined the BJP. 'I decided to quit because as an artiste I felt it's wrong for a political party to interfere in the film industry. I have seen and heard people being favoured if they were a part of the ruling party. In fact after a point I stopped attending Artiste Forum meetings because they became very political. I don't believe that a film industry should be ruled by a political party,' Locket said hours after Roopa's outburst.

If you raise your voice, you will be shunted out.

Those producers and artistes who belong to the TMC camp can do whatever they want but the rest cannot even raise their legitimate demands, alleged Roopa.

It is so blatant that the shots of the TMC-backed artistes will be finished first and the rest will have to wait, often pushing up shooting time from 10 hours to 16 hours. Earlier artistes and technicians were made to work for eight hours then it became 10 and now there's no time limit, she added.

'Technicians are taken away from the middle of a shoot to attend a TMC michhil. Nobody can protest because they will be blacklisted.... There's no payment against overtime for the senior technicians. There's no particular day of payment. It's the producer's whim when he will clear payments of workers. And these producers have the blessings of the ruling party. So nobody can raise their voice or even ask when they will be paid. If you do, you will be suspended and find yourself out of work.

'Sixty per cent of the workers in the industry are upset but are too scared to raise their voice. But sooner or later there will be a mass protest,' warned Roopa.

The fear factor is what many in the industry whisper about, behind closed doors of course. From mandatory attendance at government-backed programmes or protest platforms to turning a blind eye to the alleged TMC dadagiri in the industry, stars big and small dare not utter a word.

Several senior artistes contacted by Metro on Sunday evening requested us 'not to involve' them in 'such a controversial matter' for 'obvious reasons'.

What gives The Brothers Biswas the right to call the shots in Tollywood?

Swarup Biswas is sitting in the president's chair of the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India. Why? Just because he is the brother of minister Aroop Biswas, who is the chief minister's link to the film industry, demanded Roopa.

When Metro asked Swarup Biswas to explain his position, he said: 'There is no such written rule that you have to be a technician to be a part of the federation or to be a president. The president is selected through an election process where members of the industry vote. I have been associated with the union for eight-nine years and it is a non-political body, fighting for technicians' rights and trying to meet their needs and demands,' he countered. Swarup runs an interior design company and is associated with some NGOs as 'a social worker'.

With Shibaji Panja (often referred to as the 'CM of Tollywood' for the influence he wielded over the industry, thanks to his proximity to the chief minister) on the hop, Aroop Biswas has emerged as Mamata Banerjee's go-to man (along with Shrikant Mohta of Shree Venkatesh Films) for all things Tolly-and-Telly wood.

When asked to respond to Roopa's outburst, Aroop said: 'She can complain if she wants. I know that the industry is functioning well and there are no problems so I don't find it necessary to comment on any of her complaints. The federation is completely apolitical. She is doing it to gain mileage ahead of the civic polls. I don't have anything to say.'

Bottomline: Metro wonders what Aroop Biswas meant when he said 'the industry is functioning well'. For, a report jointly published by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and IMRB International states that 'not more than 10 per cent' of the films released in a year 'break even' and only a handful of films, typically five to six, generate enough surpluses to be termed as hits. Yes, minister?

 

Do you agree with the points raised by Roopa? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com