India Press Release Distribution

Kolkata, May 25:  Tollygunge studios here, the hub of the Bengali film industry, will again come to life with light, camera and action from Thursday after three days of work suspension.

A work distribution row between two technician groups had halted shooting Monday but the crisis was resolved Wednesday at a meeting of the state government, actors and the sparring groups of technicians.

‘The meeting was very positive and we hope the crisis would be resolved amicably,’ said Tollywood superstar and Artistes’ Forum president Prosenjit emerging from the talks at the Writers’ Building, the state secretariat.

Representatives of the film fraternity met Dilip Chakraborty, principal secretary of the cultural affairs department, following which the crisis was temporarily resolved.

‘We cannot allow stalling of shooting at any cost,’ Chakraborty said.

The industry here, popularly known as Tollywood, has lost about Rs.4 million in the process, according to studio sources.

The Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India, which is accused by rival group Video Guild of monopolising work, had called for an ‘indefinite strike’. And the only cameras visible in the studio premises for the past few days were of the electronic media with real cops at work as the row degenerated into ransacking.

Members of Video Guild, a trade union of video technicians, ransacked NT1 studio Monday and stopped work on four TV serials - ‘Bonhisikha’, ‘Tamasarekha’, ‘Dhyatterika’ and ‘Jaya’. They again held up shooting Tuesday when the production teams began work.

‘Around 90 men from Video Guild stormed the NT1 premises in the morning when we had just started shooting,’ said Atanu Roy of Sweet Melody that produces the hugely popular mega serials.

‘The loss is worth Rs.700,000 in the two days,’ he said.

Popular Bengali film director Probhat Roy also suffered after the shooting of his ongoing production ‘Priyatama’ was halted Tuesday.

‘They manhandled the production team at NT1 and threatened to smash the cameras if we didn’t stop work,’ alleged Cine Federation joint secretary Alok Bhowmick.

News reports said the trouble over work distribution between the two unions had been brewing for about a year.

On Tuesday, members of Artistes’ Forum met at Technicians Studio to thrash out a solution and finally they met the state cultural affairs principal secretary on Wednesday.