Bengali film industry lockdown ends after CM intervenes

Shooting of Bengali television serials of the Bengal entertainment industry resumed in and around Kolkata on Wednesday after the indefinite cease work by directors ended following the intervention of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

The Bengali film industry ended two days of lockdown after the Chief Minister organised a parley. All shoots had halted due to an impasse between directors, producers, and technicians. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with actor Prasenjit Chatterjee, veteran director Goutam Ghose, TMC MP and actor Dev, and TMC MLA Aroop Biswas on Tuesday evening and put an end to the lockdown. Shoots restarted on Wednesday morning.

The lockdown impacted technicians the most because they work on a no-work, no-pay basis. The two senior industry members held a 35-minute meeting with the CM and decided to restart all shoots on Wednesday morning. Smiles returned to the faces of all stakeholders at the South Kolkata studio, where the situation had been grim for the last two days. All studio doors were locked on Monday and Tuesday. 

After meeting the CM, senior director Goutam Ghose said on Tuesday night, “All stakeholders — from directors to light boys and sound recordists and hairdressers and spot boys — will act in cohesion.” He added, “Let’s resume work. There should not be any more conflict or misunderstanding tomorrow.”

The biggest sufferers in this conflict were those who shoot daily television serials. Their projects work on stringent budgets, and most serials have 3–4 days’ worth of backups. Serial producers are always worried that they may have to rerun old episodes. The decision to lift the lockdown was welcomed by the film and serial fraternity. 

Actor-producer and Trinamool Congress MP, Dev, welcomed Mamata Banerjee’s intervention. “She asked all of us to work as a family while working to reform federation rules.”

“The CM understood and appreciated our problems. She left it to us to sort it out. She wanted us to ensure that everyone’s rights are protected,” Dev said.

Actor Prasenjit Chatterjee insisted that there was no issue between the stakeholders, and it was mostly a case of a serious misunderstanding that had been hashed out. Chatterjee said, “We are not against one another. The entire issue revolved around securing one’s own rights.”