Director whose movie was taken off screens gets show at KIFF

A new movie of director Anik Dutta, whose film 'Bhobisyoter Bhoot' was taken off the screens two days after its release in March, was shown at the ongoing 25th Kolkata International Film Festival on Saturday.

The withdrawal of 'Bhobisyoter Bhoot' from the screens without citing any reason had sparked off a stir by artists, prompting reinstatement to the theatres a month later.

Dutta told PTI that 'Borun Babur Bondhu' was his first movie that was screened at the KIFF.

It was also the first of his five movies that was sent to the KIFF committee for selection.

The movie was screened as the opening film in the 'Bengali Panorama' category at the Rabindra Okakura Bhawan in Salt Lake in the eastern fringes of the city, one of the 17 venues in the metropolis where movies of KIFF are being shown.

"I am happy that my film was screened at the 25th Kolkata International film festival. But, I would have been happier had it been shown at a more centrally-located venue.

"The festival authorities have verbally promised to arrange a second show at Nandan (in central Kolkata). I will be happy if that materialises," he said.

'Borun Babur Bondhu' has a cast of stalwarts like Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukhopadhyay, Paran Bandyopadhyay apart from critically-acclaimed actors like Ritwik Chakraborty, Kaushik Sen and Arpita Chatterjee.

The screening of the movie came a year after Dutta, during a panel discussion at last year's KIFF, had stirred up controversy through his veiled reference to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"In reality, cinema does not belong to the director or the producer. It belongs to the person whose pictures are splashed all across Nandan and the city," Dutta had said.

However, he refused to comment on the issue during the ongoing film festival.

Asked about the controversy over withdrawal of 'Bhobisyoter Bhoot' from the screens, Dutta said, "Direct the question to those who were behind any such purported move and what were the circumstances behind such a decision.