As witnesses confirm actor’s discomfort, Arindam Sil’s film projects in jeopardy
Times of India | 10 September 2024
Kolkata: During a hearing of the West Bengal Commission for Women (WBCW) on the sexual harassment case against Arindam Sil on Monday, at least one of the two witnesses corroborated seeing the actor in a state of discomfort after being kissed on the sets by the director.
Leena Gangopadhyay, WBCW chairperson, confirmed the occurrence of the Monday hearing. “We conducted a hearing with two witnesses on Monday.The details of the proceedings are confidential,” she said. According to industry insiders, one of the witnesses testified that his assistant had witnessed the incident and reported it to him during the filming of ‘Ekti Khunir Sandhane Mitin’. The witness observed that the actor was visibly distressed. He approached her, offered counsel, and encouraged her to resume shooting. The other witness affirmed he had observed the director kissing the actor. However, he failed to comprehend the gravity of the situation. He also acknowledged the possibility of the actor feeling distressed.
Such discourse has led to speculation regarding the status of Sil’s forthcoming projects. Repeated calls and messages to Nishpal Singh Rane, the producer of ‘Ekti Khunir Sandhane Mitin’, didn’t elicit any response. The Diwali release of Sil’s feature film has been postponed. This announcement was made by Nil Ratan Datta, the chairman and managing director of Camellia Group, the production company behind the film. According to Datta, “With only three days remaining until the release of the web series, altering the schedule at this juncture is challenging due to financial implications. Moreover, we have already made commitments to our subscribers regarding upcoming releases. One of the commitments for Sept was the release of ‘Shaheb Bibi Joker’. We were unaware that such an unfortunate incident would transpire. We will proceed with our plans.”
Producer Rupa Datta said, “The production house on the sets of which this incident happened in April should have taken some steps. No untoward incident happened in our production house because of him. I am there to protest against all acts of proven guilt. But is it possible to change the credit line just days before the release? We will proceed with the release on Sept 13. However, our digital team has not engaged in any collaboration on social media with him for this launch.”
However, Datta has postponed the end-Oct release of Sil’s film ‘Iskaboner Bibi’.