Satyajit, Uttam, Soumitra demand load shedding rationing.
Sanchita Chatterjee, Kolkata: Almost every day, extra days of shooting were required for every film. The Bengali film industry was facing power shortage. A delegation from Studio Para met the then Chief Minister Jyoti Basu.
Purnendu Patri is directing the film of the same name based on Rabindranath Tagore's 'Malancha'. He is shooting peacefully. No, no one is waiting for the light on his set. The makeup of the artists is not being washed off by sweat. The daily income of the crew is not affected. Purnendu has been working by running the generator. The generator has been running every day since 10 am. The shooting is starting. Most of the time, the generator has to be used. In such a situation, he sees no way out without a generator. He said, “I had made a provision for a generator in the current shooting budget. I calculated that it is beneficial. Work can be done as planned. And for directors like me, who make films on a low budget, it will be impossible to work if they wait for government lighting. I am forced to say again in view of the current situation, there is no way out without a generator. I do not have the money to extend the ten-day schedule to fifteen days as needed. Besides, there is the matter of dates for the artists. The floor also needs to be cleared. The crew also needs to get dates. Even if the budget increases a little to work with a generator, there is a benefit in the end. But there is no doubt that we have to struggle a lot.”
The generator cannot be run for long at a time. Dirt is accumulating in the machine. Time has to be spent cleaning the dirt. There is no way that we can rely on government lighting even for that time.
“Today, the light came on time,” said Purnendu, “while we were all having lunch. If there was no generator, everyone would have had to run after dropping their food. So the entire schedule had to depend on the generator. We finished shooting three hours ago yesterday. Today, we are going to finish shooting on time. This is actually a benefit. It is a loss for those who have been waiting for the light to come for hours.”
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Just like at Dilip Sarkar’s studio in New Theatres. When I went, I saw ‘Preyosi’ heroine Aarti Bhattacharya sitting on a chair outside the makeup room. She was sweating and busy applying makeup. She was using a newspaper as a hand fan. Where is hero Soumitra Chatterjee? He was found under the shade of a tree in front of the canteen. I could tell he was very angry. All the buttons of his shirt were open, completely soaked in sweat.
At that time, Uttamkumar came there with a bang. Uttam and Soumitra talked in private for a while. Both were excited. They probably talked about load shedding. They probably also decided when they would go to meet Jyoti Basu
A little further away, I saw Srikanth Guha Thakurta, the director of ‘Preyasi’, standing with a sad face. I also met Amal Dutt, the director of ‘Sandhi’. He said, "We have been most affected by load shedding in the last five days. We completed the schedule in eight days with great difficulty. There was a wedding set. It took double the amount allocated for flowers for five days. Every day, the set cost three thousand taka. This time, calculate how much money was spent on flowers. There were a lot of junior artists on top of that. Their per day payment has also increased. The studio also had to pay more money as the days have increased. If this continues to increase, guess where the film budget will end up. How will we make films? This is the situation of Bengali films. On top of that, there is an additional burden of load shedding. If the problem is not resolved immediately, the number of producers will gradually decrease."
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Have you received any assurance from the government?
Chief Minister Jyoti Basu meet Satyajit Ray, Uttam Kumar, Soumitra, Bhupen Hazarika and Odia film producer-actor Dhiru Biswal. In view of the disastrous situation of the film industry in eastern India, the delegation placed their request before the Chief Minister.
Satyajit: We are demanding uninterrupted electricity for four days a week, i.e. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, for twelve hours.
Chief Minister: I am currently making arrangements for three days a week. But I cannot say when we will be able to provide electricity for 12 hours on certain days. I will inform you later.
Satyajit: We can also consider installing a generator.
Chief Minister: We will think about it.
Bhupen: It has been decided that eighteen Assam films will be shot here. If this situation continues, the producers will go to Bombay (Mumbai) or Madras (Chennai). What else is there to do?
Chief Minister: We are trying our best.