2024-07-29 20:15:42
Tollywood makers have stopped shooting due to Dhaka issue. The Directors Association of Eastern India has banned director Rahul for the next three months for coming to Dhaka and shooting without informing the Tollywood Federation. The makers of Tolipara did not see the matter well.
After that the directors went on an indefinite strike from Monday (July 29) as per the predetermined decision. The Directors Guild informed the news through a notification on Sunday (July 28) night. The notice reads, ‘Giving importance and respect to the sentiments and opinions of the majority of the director members, the executive committee of the organization requests the members to remain absent from all shooting floors of Bengali language from July 29 until the problem of the directors is resolved. This request is not applicable to languages other than Bengali.’
Based on that, all shootings of serials and movies have been stopped in Tolipara since this morning.
Since yesterday morning, the members of the Directors Guild have been discussing the issue. It is known from there, ‘Saturday, July 27, a Bengali movie directed by Rahul Mukherjee was being shot at Technician Studio. The crews covered by the federation did not attend that shoot. As a result, the shooting could not be done and all the directors and actors present there were humiliated.
In this context, Agraja discussed with the directors and decided that if the crew does not accept Rahul as the director of a certain movie, if they do not agree to shoot with him, the directors are forced to go on non-cooperation from July 29. They will not budge from this position until a settlement is reached.
In this regard, the directors commented, ‘We think that the federation cannot be the sole regulatory body of an industry. It is unconstitutional to force someone to go on strike without resolving the mistake, whatever the problem. In particular, the way the rest of the guild’s crew has gone on a path of non-cooperation after our Directors’ Guild has withdrawn the strike imposed on Rahul Mukherjee due to a misunderstanding is humiliating and harmful not only to Rahul but to every one of our directors. As a result of our decision, if any director faces any problem in the future, all the directors will stand by him, we are also making that promise.
The signatures of the directors have already been collected in view of this message. Signed with consent – Raj Chakraborty, Kaushik Ganguly, Aneek Dutta, Atanu Ghosh, Devalaya Bhattacharya, Parambrata Chatterjee etc.
It is necessary to say that this impasse of Tollywood started from Bangladesh i.e. Dhaka. Bangladeshi OTT platform Charki started operations in Kolkata on October 4 last year. It was announced that the platform will produce 30 content in West Bengal within three years. A series named ‘Lahu’ was also started in this. Bangladesh’s Arifin Shubo and West Bengal’s Sohini Sarkar were signed for the series directed by Rahul Mukherjee. However, due to various demands of the Tollywood federations including additional remuneration, Charki stopped operations in Kolkata. As a result, the shooting of ‘Lahu’ was stopped midway. It is known that Rahul came to Bangladesh along with some crew members to complete the shooting of the rest of the movie. At first, the filmmaker hid the issue of shooting, but later admitted to shooting in Bangladesh. The Directors Association of Eastern India banned Rahul for the next three months for coming to Dhaka and shooting without informing the Tollywood Federation.
Such an incident has not happened in Tolipara before. So other producers have also questioned how reasonable it is to ban Rahul. A large part of the managers think that if the rest of the managers do not stand up to the problem of one manager, more bad days may come in the future. So they want to join the protest while there is time.
Meanwhile, a meeting was called at Prosenjit Chatterjee’s house in Ballygunge on Monday (July 29) to resolve the deadlock. The directors-producers of Tolipara appeared there. Among them were Raj Chakraborty, Shivprasad Mukherjee, Gautam Ghosh, Birsa Dasgupta, Sudeshna Roy, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Subrata Sen and others.
Regarding this meeting, Raj said, ‘What will happen to Rahul is now on everyone’s face. We directors are worried about this. I hope to get the support of technician friends.’