Bengali Film Industry Resumes Production After Week-Long Boycott

Shoots have resumed in Tollywood, the Bengali-language film industry, after boycotts were called over an filming dispute.

Filming resumed today after an intervention from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Last week, technicians boycotted a production on which director Rahool Mukherjee was serving as creative producer. On July 23, the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India (FCTWEI) had banned Mukherjee from making films for three months for violating rules for shooting overseas in Bangladesh. The ban was later lifted by the local directors’ guild on July 27, but the technician boycott continued.

The production was set to feature actors Prosenjit Chatterjee and Anirban Bhattacharya.

In a bid to show solidarity with Mukherjee, members from the Directors Association of Eastern India announced that they would cease work from July 29, bringing the Bengali film industry to a halt. Top filmmakers like Aparna Sen, Kaushik Ganguly, and Srijit Mukherjee signed a statement supporting Mukherjee that was posted on Facebook.

Actors Prasenjit Chatterjee and Dev, as well as veteran director Goutam Ghose met with minister Banerjee in a bid to resolve the issue.

After the meeting, a news conference was held, with local media reporting several resolutions from the meeting, including that moving forward, FCTWEI had no authority to impose bans or non-cooperation agreements among industry members.

A review committee of the incident was also announced, chaired by Ghose, with Chatterjee, Dev, Sen and Aroop Biswas as initial members and representation from all guilds. They stated that standard operating practices and areas of jurisdiction in film, TV, streaming and independent films will be scrutinized and revised, with a report and changes due by November.