Tolly forums vow not to work with prod house till truth behind Rahul’s death is out
Times of India | 8 April 2026
Kolkata: Members of West Bengal Motion Picture Artists' Forum, Federation of Cine Technicians of Eastern India and Eastern India Motion Pictures Association have decided not to work in any production of the production house—Magic Moments—till the reason behind Rahul Banerjee's demise is revealed. Messages to Leena Gangopadhyay went unanswered.
Forum's working president Prosenjit Chatterjee told the media that after a series of meetings on Tuesday, the decision to stall shootings was revoked. "Rahul has opened our ways. An SOP about insurance is being drawn up. We have waited for over nine days to know the truth. We will not be working with the production house unless we know how Rahul died." Forum's president actor Ranjit Mullick added, "The company has to publicly say what happened during the shooting." Actor-turned-MP Dev said, "We do not subscribe to the ban culture. Yet, we will go into non-cooperation till the production house can prove it is not responsible." He also brought up another issue of ban of artists and directors. "Bumba-da has given me a word that all the directors and artists who have been banned will return to the sets within 72 hours."
Swarup Biswas from Federation said, "No channels came for today's meeting. The insurance issue will be sorted in 30 days. All other issues related to security will be sorted in 15 days. Technicians would have been happy if Dev had thought about technicians as much as artists." Director Haranath Chakraborty said, "We are nationally boycotting the production house. If Leena opens another company, artists and technicians will not work there either."
Veteran Madhabi Mukhopadhyay opposed the move. "I will be the first person to work with her. It smacks of vested interest and politics to oust a production house by others who were forever eyeing the projects she got. It pains me to see the way she is being harassed. I will be able to live if she has to shut down. But what about the others she has given work to?"
The industry is abuzz with the allegation that some gunning for the production house are as concerned about knowing the truth as about ousting this production company. Allegations have been levelled against actor Kaushik Sen for joining this movement with Federation so that the ban on his actor son, Riddhi, is lifted. "I will still have a lot of questions against Federation. When Artists Forum and Federation are taking a firm and positive step regarding the false statements from the production house in Rahul's case, my wife Reshmi and I will be there. There were so many versions and lies in statements from the production house. We are hurt by the insensitivity of the production house. I think that is because of their confidence about their power," said Kaushik Sen.
Actor Jeetu Kamal, who was recently in the news for problems with another production house while shooting on March 15, supports this decision against Magic Moments. "But I am dumbfounded with the silence of Forum when I wrote to them about another production house's irresponsible demands and bad behaviour on sets of another film that could have led to an accident with me. Since I didn't pay with my life, my case against this production house is not being taken seriously. On Sunday, Bumba-da said that there will be a meeting. But I thought the approach in my case was casual," said Kamal.