Artistes and activists staged a protest in Kolkata yesterday after filmmaker Anik Dutta’s satire Bhobishyoter Bhoot was pulled out of theatres. On Saturday, the police allegedly intervened for ‘public interest’, stating that the film’s content was ‘political’.
The protest, organized by actor Joyraj Bhattacharjee, saw people holding placards that read in Bengali, “My Big Sister is an artist, my Big Sister is a poet, and she uses the police to censor a new Bengali film.”
“What an artist can say or cannot say cannot be forcibly decided by any authority, and when that happens, that is fascism,” said Bhattacharjee. He also demanded to know the exact reason for pulling the film out of theatres.
“I don’t know why they stopped our film’s screening – maybe, they don’t like my face,” said Dutta. “We didn’t target any political party or person taking names in our film. Then, party A thinks we are from party B and vice versa.”
“It’s a political satire and it pokes fun at every party,” said Koushik Sen who has also acted in the movie. Rest of the cast includes Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Barun Chandra, Swastika Mukherjee, Paran Banerjee and Moon Moon Sen.
The film released on Friday. While a Scroll report says that the movie was dropped from several theatres by Friday evening, another report in Telegraph says that the morning shows on Saturday were screened as per schedule. The crackdown happened during the afternoon show at INOX Hiland Park and subsequently, all shows were cancelled by the end of the day.
A source at INOX said that the police demanded all shows of the movie be stopped. Their argument was that the content was ‘political’ and capable of ‘instigating people.’ However, the police denied that they intervened. “Who says that (the police intervened)?” said a senior police official who did not wish to be named.
The Minister of State for Information and Cultural Affairs, Indranil Sen has also denied knowledge about the incident. “I have no idea. I will try to find out what actually happened,” he said.
Dutta spoke to Silverscreen and said, “I am also waiting to see where this is going because so far I haven’t heard anything from the government. I have been receiving great support from within the film industry and the public. A lot of filmmakers and producers have come forward protesting against the police action. Apparently, a government official stated that they were unaware of this. I believe it’s time the government owned up for what happened.”
Dutta and his supporters claim that the action is a result of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s vendetta politics. The director, during a panel discussion at the Kolkata Internation Film Festival in November 2018, criticized the CM’s style of operation. After seeing that her photos were put up all around the venue of the festival, Dutta criticized Banerjee for encouraging a culture of sycophancy.
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ToI stated that veteran filmmaker Soumitra Chatterjee wrote a letter voicing support for Anika Dutta and called the government’s policy ‘vindictive’, ‘undemocratic’ and ‘a fascist policy.’
“I think it’s like revenge. There is every possibility that the comments Anik Dutta made during the last Kolkata International Film Festival have made the administration take such a decision,” he said.
“I can’t find any suitable words to criticise it. Will there be no media for freedom of speech? Will there be nothing in cinema that the administration doesn’t like? I strongly oppose this fascist policy. I hope those who are responsible will soon understand it’s against democracy and solve the matter,” he added. Sijit Mukherjee and Abit Chatterjee too voiced their support.
Image Courtesy: IE