A senior Trinamool Congress leader on Friday slammed those associated with the West Bengal film industry for not speaking against a movie allegedly showing the state in poor light, though these personalities “enjoy shadow of power” by sharing stage with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Kunal Ghosh, a former Rajya Sabha MP, was speaking about the Hindi movie The Diary of West Bengal which hit the screens during the day. He did not name the film but shared its poster on X along with his statement.
The Calcutta High Court on Thursday did not pass any interim order on the release of the film observing that in a democratic setup, healthy criticisms should not be stopped. The court was hearing a PIL praying that the release of the movie be restrained, claiming that it seeks to depict the chief minister of the state in poor light.
In the post, Ghosh said, “What is Tolly (Tollygunge) industry doing, especially those producers, directors, actors, who are active in @AITCofficial, holding posts, enjoying shadow of power, sharing stages with Didi, AB; what r are they doing to counter this type of narratives?” Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is affectionately called ‘Didi’. By ‘AB’, Ghosh apparently meant party general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee, considered number two in TMC hierarchy.
Film and television stars are seen on stages at several political programmes of the TMC. The party has also fielded actors in assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
In another post, Ghosh said, “A film spreading hatred, toxicity, falsehood is being released in the country for political reasons. We want the stakeholders in the Bengali film industry, particularly those associated with TMC, to voice their protests – in tweets, press meets and symbolic sit-ins.” “Those who will not do so will be identified as opportunists,” he said.
The TMC leader’s outburst came at a time when a section of those associated with the entertainment industry are protesting the alleged rape and murder of a doctor inside the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata three weeks ago.
Responding to Ghosh’s comments, film and theatre personality Kaushik Sen said the RG Kar hospital incident “shook every citizen of the state”.
“This is not a political protest and we hope he (Ghosh) will appreciate it. Artists of Bengal had always come to the forefront of issues confronting humanity. They never back out,” Sen said.
Actor-director Parambrata Chatterjee claimed that Ghosh made an “irrelevant comment”.
Chatterjee said Ghosh is mixing up two issues — how film personalities should protest against the RG Kar incident and how they should respond to the release of a film.
“We had protested during the Nandigram movement in 2007 (when the state was ruled by the Left Front) as we felt we must voice our anguish. We will always keep protesting on issues which disturb us. Mr Kunal Ghosh should direct his query to those members of the film fraternity who are associated with his party,” he said.
Actress and TMC MP Satabdi Roy said, “Kunal Ghosh is right. We must speak out against efforts to tarnish the name and image of Bengal.”
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