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Tollywood stars in protest show against studio handover
Indo-Asian News Service

Kolkata, Sep 4 (IANS) Months after they rallied for the Left Front in the election campaign, the film fraternity of Tollywood, the eponymous Bengali film industry based in the city's studios in Tollygunge, hit the road Monday to cry conspiracy against the same government.

From Tollywood king Prasenjit Chatterjee to actors like Tapas Paul, Abhishek and Ranjit Mullick, all braved the rains and walked for miles to converge at downtown Esplanade against the reported move to turn the government-run studios for use for other activities after a sell-off to private buyers.

The West Bengal government is reportedly planning to sell off the studios to private parties.

"The Technician studios, where Satyajit Ray began filmmaking and where matinee idol like Uttam Kumar worked, are now threatened. We are not against privatisation of upgradation but we will never allow them to be used for other purposes," said actor Prasenjit.

   

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He was joined by the other big stars of Tollywood who vowed to prevent the government move at any cost.

"We have collected 2,500 signatures and sent those to the government to know what is their intention.

"If the studios are used for any other purpose we won't allow that. The Technician studios should be kept like heritage buildings and though the government say they are loss-making, the fact is that the floors are not empty anymore with the emergence of the television industry in a big way," said the actor, who starred in Rituparno Ghosh's "Choker Bali" opposite Aishwarya Rai, a film shot on the same floors.

"If the government gives away the studios one by one where will we work? These are the floors where Rituparno works now, where only the other day Abhishek Bachchan worked for his 'Antarmahal'," he said.

"We hope Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya will listen to us and we will reach a settlement but what brought us to the road is that for the past 20 days we have not be given any information despite our signature campaign and requests."