Kolkata film industry representatives meet Bengal CM amid shooting impasse

    Kolkata, Jul 30 (PTI) Representatives of the Kolkata film industry met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday seeking her intervention to resolve the deadlock over shooting for Bengali films, OTT content and serials.
    No shooting took place in any studio in the city and its neighbourhood for the past two days as directors were on a cease work over the refusal of technicians to work under filmmaker Rahool Mukherjee allegedly alleging that he violated shooting norms.
    Bengali superstar Prasenjit Chatterjee, actor-turned-TMC MP Dev and director Gautam Ghosh, along with minister Arup Biswas met Banerjee at the secretariat and held talks for nearly 35 minutes.
    Following the meeting, both Prasenjit and Dev took to social media to thank the chief minister for intervening in the matter.
    Both said they were hopeful that the impasse, which has been affecting all stakeholders of the industry, would be over and shooting would resume from Wednesday.
    "Thank you didi. We all wish to resume shooting from tomorrow with your help. Thanks to all the Technicians, Producers, Directors and all the stakeholders," Chatterjee posted on X.
    The chief minister is often affectionately referred to as ‘didi’ (elder sister).
    "Thanku didi @MamataOfficial. Hopefully everything will be resolved by evening n will resume shooting from tomorrow Thanks to all the technicians, producers, directors n all the stakeholders," Dev said in a social media post.
    Dev shared a photo in which Mamata Banerjee, Prasenjit, Goutam Ghosh and Arup Biswas and himself.
    The deadlock was created after technicians walked out of the studio floor of an unnamed project of filmmaker Rahool Mukherjee on the first day of shoot on July 27, standing their ground to boycott the director, alleging that he “violated shooting norms”.
    A spokesperson of the West Bengal Motion Pictures Artists Forum said no shooting for any film, web series or mega serial took place on Tuesday, too.
    The impasse, which began last Saturday, has now stretched splitting the fraternity into two with a section of producers, directors and actors choosing to express solidarity with the “outcast” director, and deciding to go for an indefinite cease work on shooting floors from Monday “till the problem is addressed in an amicable manner”.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)