Bengali serial shooting stalled as directors and technicians’ guild at loggerheads again
Telegraph | 5 February 2025
The spectre of a shutdown has returned to haunt the Tollygunge studios with directors and the technicians’ guild at loggerheads again.
Set construction for an upcoming serial up at Dassani Studio on Moore Avenue has been stalled midway. The technicians stopped reporting for work on Monday because the director is accused of making remarks that have “maligned” the federation.
Srijit Roy, the veteran director-producer, went live on Facebook on Tuesday morning, sharing his “plight” in detail in a 20-minute video.
“The work for the set of a new serial started on January 27. A significant part of the set was already set up. Suddenly, trouble started on Saturday. I heard that the work would be stopped, apparently because I said something that offended technicians.... The work stopped totally from Monday,” Roy, who has directed popular soaps like Kiranmala and Bhutu, said in the clip.
Roy denied the allegation against him. “Why are canards being spread? Why are directors being hounded repeatedly? Everybody should understand that if directors are stopped from working, it will affect the livelihood of technicians.... They are not rich people. They are being misguided.”
He urged the federation to furnish evidence of any wrongdoing. Otherwise, the technicians should come to the floor and resume work, he said.
Roy told The Telegraph he was more surprised because he had not received any formal communication from the federation. “I have no idea why I am being targeted. I did not get a single notice, letter or email,” he said.
The friction between directors and the federation — which owes allegiance to an influential Trinamool Congress leader — is not new.
Some of the biggest names in Bengali films came together at a news conference on December 3 last year to allege that the high-handedness of the federation was “ruining” the industry.
The federation is a trade union acting like a regulatory body, they alleged at the news conference. The panel of speakers included actor-directors Shiboprosad Mukherjee, Kaushik Ganguly, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Anirban Bhattacharya and directors Sudeshna Roy, Indranil Roychowdhury and Subrata Sen.
The Directors Association of Eastern India, of which the speakers are members, has since moved the Competition Commission of India against the allegedly illegal practices of the federation.
On Tuesday, this newspaper saw a WhatsApp message, attributed to a member of the technicians’ federation, which has been doing the rounds of the studio para. It said: “The members of the directors’ guild have said whatever they wanted to malign our motherboard, the federation. One of the key speakers is director Srijit Roy.... I urge members, who I believe joined his set without prior knowledge, to stop reporting for work from Monday until the director seeks forgiveness for his comments.”
This newspaper is withholding the name of the purported sender because he could not be contacted.
Sudeshna Roy, the secretary of the directors’ guild, said Srijit Roy was the third director to be harassed by the federation in the past 15 days.
“We are against cease-work. The way our work is being stopped is deplorable. Today, it is Srijit. Joydeep Mukherjee (director of the popular Eken Babu series) and Kaushik Ganguly have had similar experiences,” she said.
The president of the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India is Swarup Biswas, brother of minister Aroop Biswas. A standoff between the federation and the directors’ guild in July 2024 led to an impasse that crippled shooting in the studios for days.
On Tuesday, Swarup told Metro: “The allegations levelled by the directors are baseless. Some problems have cropped up. They also have a role in it. Discussions are on to resolve the problem.”
The federation represents 26 guilds made up of persons who are part of a shoot. Technically, the directors’ guild is also part of the federation.
An intervention by chief minister Mamata Banerjee broke the July impasse. She had announced a committee that was to submit a report and formulate a set of standard operating procedures for shooting films, serials and the likes in three months. “We kept waiting but unfortunately the committee was never formed,” Parambrata said on Tuesday.
“Even if Srijit has done something wrong, he deserves a formal communication.”
Raj Chakraborty, filmmaker and Trinamool MLA, said: “The chief minister has clearly said work should not be stalled and no one can be blacklisted.... Despite that, who are these people who are creating this environment of fear and intimidation? It is very important that we find who they are.”