Five Bengali films left high and dry after chitfund bust

With the bubble bursting for chitfunds financing movie ventures in Tollywood, five Bengali films in the post production stage and scheduled for release in May-June this year have been left high and dry.
The films that are facing uncertainty are 'Bhalo Theko' directed by Goutam Haldar, 'Ekti Ashare Galpo' directed by Arindam Chakroborty, 'Ami Shaira Bano' directed by Rahul Mukherjee, 'Jale Jangale' directed by Nitish Roy and 'Kancher Deoal' directed by Anindyo Bandyopadhyay.
Actor Arijit Dutta, who is an important member of Tollywood fraternity Arijit Dutta, said that 25 per cent of the films produced in West Bengal were by chitfunds.

"More than profit-making the finance companies aim at brand building from movie ventures," he said.
"So long directors and cast were preoccupied with the making of a film, it served everybody's interests as movies were being completed in a time-bound manner and being released. Now with the Saradha scam things may not be the same at least for some time," he said.
'Moner Manush' director Goutam Ghosh said, "Film directors interact with the film division of a company, chit fund or whatever, during pre-production, shooting and the post-production phase and it is not always possible for a creative person to ascertain the source of funds."

Some of these companies, he said, had also been producing films for the past few years though the quality in many cases remained to be desired.
Director Kaushik Ganguly, whose 'Shabdo' won three national awards this year, said, "You can't put all chitfund companies in one bracket.
"Let the dust settle down and the guilty ones are fixed. It will help everybody rather than witch-hunting," he said.