Filmmaker Sudeshna Roy’s “Swapno Holeo Satyi” which was to go on floors this April, stands shelved as of now. Shooting of a music video of actor-filmmaker Anirban Bhattacharya has been held up twice within a fortnight. Filmmaker Kingshuk De’s next feature is also held up.

The common factors are, the technicians did not turn up for each of these shoots and all three, members of the Directors Association of Eastern India (DAEI), had signed a writ petition against the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India.

On Tuesday, the counsel for the state government informed Justice Amrita Sinha of the Calcutta High Court, the secretary of the information and cultural affairs department will meet the directors who had filed the petition and the federation members to resolve the dispute that has been lingering for over a year now.

This meeting too should have happened at least three months ago when the same judge gave a similar directive to the state government.

The directors who had filed the writ petition on Wednesday afternoon issued a statement saying they were hopeful that the state government would fulfil the promises that it had made to the film directors nearly a year ago.

Last July when the shooting of films and serials in Tollygunge studio para stopped as the directors held a cease work protesting the federation’s decision to ban filmmaker Rahool Mukherjee for going to shoot in Bangladesh without informing the body.

For years around the film studios and the sets there have been whispers of the federation interfering in the filmmaking process, including the hiring of technicians, the size of crew, even the caterers among others.

The ban on Mukherjee had forced the directors to do a rethink.

They made a representation to the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who promised to clear the mess.

The chief minister had suggested a high-powered committee comprising Ghosh, Prosenjit and minister Aroop Biswas, also the elder brother of the Federation head Swarup, and others to address the issues.

“There were no notifications about the committee. An unofficial meeting may have taken place in August last year, there is nothing on paper,” said a filmmaker who did not want to be named.

As the days passed on with the promised committee nowhere in sight, relations between the federation and the filmmakers worsened.

Last October, over 100 filmmakers filed a defamation suit against Swarup for his comment that 60 per cent of complaints of sexual harassment are against directors and producer-directors and 40 per cent against producers.

Many among those who were party to the defamation suit have since withdrawn their names including some of the biggest names in Bengali cinema.

During Tuesday’s hearing the counsel for the directors had informed the high court that the situation had worsened since the petitions were filed early this year.

“Three directors had to stop their shooting since technicians were not allowed to report on set. Two of the petitioners have withdrawn their names from the petition,” the statement says. “Our counsel informed the court though the circumstances in which they had to withdraw the names, their identities were not disclosed before the court for their personal safety.”

Technicians and other staff associated with Sudeshna Roy’s film “Swapno Holeo Satyi” had started dropping out barely two weeks after Justice Amrita Sinha had 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.”

On Tuesday evening, Justice Sinha reiterated: “It will be open for the secretary to hear all the necessary parties and ensure that the issues faced by the petitioners are resolved at the earliest. The right to life and livelihood; carry on trade, practice and business shall not be interfered with by any party whatsoever.”

The high court order has once again instilled confidence in the minds of those involved in the industry.

“I have not been able to return to the sets. I was never given any reasons why the technicians dropped out one after the other. I can only guess it is because of the petition,” filmmaker Roy told The Telegraph Online. “I still have the script and I am hopeful one day I will be able to complete the film.”