Kolkata: At the very least 14 administrators of the Bengali film trade have individually filed writ petitions earlier than the Calcutta excessive courtroom saying that the situations and calls for imposed by an umbrella physique of cine technicians have affected their elementary proper to work assured by the Structure, a number of petitioners stated on Wednesday.
The petitioners, together with administrators Parambrata Chatterjee, Anirban Bhattacharya, Sudeshna Roy, Indranil Roychowdhury and Subrata Sen, moved the excessive courtroom over the past week (Representational picture)
The petitioners, together with administrators Parambrata Chatterjee, Anirban Bhattacharya, Sudeshna Roy, Indranil Roychowdhury and Subrata Sen, moved the excessive courtroom over the past week. Bidula Bhattacharya, an unbiased director, was the primary to file the petition.
“We are not against the FCTWEI (Federation of Cine Technicians of Eastern India) but there must be a clarity on what it can and cannot do. Its decisions and diktats led to suspension of shootings on numerous occasions, leading to financial loss. It controls virtually everything. For example, FCTWEI has not given the health insurance cards issued by the state government to many members without assigning any reason,” one of many petitioners stated.
“Those who have spoken in public against the federation have been selectively targeted,” the petitioner alleged.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Swarup Biswas, the youthful brother of West Bengal minister Aroop Biswas, is the president of FCTWEI, the umbrella physique. The petitioners are additionally members of FCTWE though they’ve their respective federations.
HT tried to contact minister Biswas on Wednesday night however was advised he was busy in a gathering.
“Let us first hear what the petitioners have to say in court. We will give our reply accordingly,” Biswas advised reporters on Tuesday.
“Ministers Aroop Biswas and Indranil Sen held meetings with us and tried to solve these issues but nothing worked out,” Roy, the vice-president and secretary of the previous administrators’ federation underneath FCTWEI,advised HT.
“A new directors’ federation has been formed to include those who are not against the umbrella body,” a FCTWEI member stated.
The deadlock started in July 2024 after FCTWEI referred to as a strike, saying Rahul Mukherjee, a younger director, “cannot work as a director” as he had “violated rules” by finishing the taking pictures of a Bangladeshi sequence in Bangladesh after taking pictures for 4 days in Kolkata.
“Mukherjee was suspended by the Director’s Guild for three months following a decision taken by FCTWEI,” Swarup Biswas stated. The Guild lifted the suspension order on July 26.
FCTWEI stated that Mukherjee can work as inventive producer for an upcoming film, however it must be directed by Soumik Haldar.
“How can the technicians’ body decide who can be a director and who cannot. This is unheard of,” nationwide award -winning director Gautam Ghosh stated on July 29, 2024, after the administrators met at actor Prasenjit Chatterjee’s residence. Director Raj Chakraborty, a TMC legislator, and actor Deepak Adhikari, a TMC Lok Sabha member, expressed their solidarity with the administrators.
The administrators resumed work on July 31 after chief minister Mamata Banerjee met a few of them and stated variations with the technicians’ physique ought to be resolved by talks.
“The situation, however, did not change. Things came to a point where we had no option but to move court,” one other petitioner stated.