WB govt makes it mandatory to screen one Bengali film at prime time in multiplexes
'In every cinema hall and in all screens of every multiplex across the state, 365 prime time shows / screenings of Bengali films shall mandatorily be held throughout the year with at least one Bengali show per day for all 365 days during the year,' said a notification issued by the state information and cultural affairs department on Wednesday.
This comes at a time when chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched a Bhasha Andolan (linguist movement) amid allegations of Bengali-speaking migrant workers being detained in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled (BJP) states and labelled as Bangladeshis.
The notification also states that prime time shows shall mean shows held between 3 pm and 9 pm every day.
'Earlier, the slot between 12 noon and 9 pm was considered prime time. Now the slot between 3 pm and 9 pm will be considered as prime time. Earlier cinema halls and multiplexes were required to screen at least 120 Bengali films a year. Now we have made it mandatory to screen 365 films during prime-time slots,' Aroop Biswas, state youth services and sports minister, told media persons.
The minister said that the move will help to give Bengali films a boost.
'Efforts are being made to stifle the Bengali language while some persons have stated that there is no such language named Bengali. The move will help to push Bengali films. Several fresh directors, producers and actors are coming up in the Bengali film industry. This move would help them,' said Biswas.
A senior official said that the West Bengal Cinemas (Regulation of Public Exhibitions) Rules, 1956, will also be amended soon.
'This is a historic move by the Mamata Banerjee-administration. This will ensure there are at least 365 screenings of Bengali films across all theatres and multiplexes in the State, in a fitting response to those who criticised the declining number of Bengali film productions year on year,' Swarup Biswas, president of the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India, told the media on Wednesday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
10 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
India won't have got independence if Bengal wasn't there, says CM Mamata Banerjee; calls for unity in diversity
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that India would not have gained Independence if Bengal were not there, noting that legends like Rabindranath Tagore and Subhas Chandra Bose, who made significant contributions to shaping the nation's destiny, were born in the state. CM Mamata Banerjee's remarks came against the backdrop of her party, Trinamool Congress's campaign that is themed on Bengali 'asmita' (pride).(File Image) Banerjee said that Bengal is the beacon of hope, which stands for unity amid diversity. "If Bengal was not there, India would not have got Independence. Bengal's soil has produced eminent people like Rabindranath Tagore, Nazrul Islam and Subhas Chandra Bose. The national anthem, the national song and the 'Jai Hind' slogan are all creations of Bengalis," she said while speaking at a function marking the 'Kanyashree' scheme's 12th anniversary. Her remarks came against the backdrop of her party, Trinamool Congress's campaign that is themed on Bengali 'asmita' (pride). TMC has alleged "language terror" on migrant workers from West Bengal in BJP-governed states. '70% were Bengalis' 'You will find that almost 70 per cent of inmates of the Cellular Jail (in Port Blair) were Bengalis. Freedom fighters from Punjab came second,' she was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. "Tomorrow is Independence Day. I urge all to discard narrow-mindedness and divisive thoughts. Bengal stands for harmony and unity amongst diversity. We are strong and united," she told the schoolgirls present in the programme," she told the school girls present at the event. The Bengal CM said that those who had entered India after the Partition are all citizens of the country. "Only yesterday, I read about a father accompanying his son to a sporting event was not allowed accommodation at a hotel in Noida for speaking in Bengali. If we can honour your languages, why can't you respect ours?" she asked. She criticised the Centre for "curbing scholarships in higher education" and highlighted that there is a "deprivation" of funds for Bengal. "The UGC has nearly stopped funding research activities. The state government is now sponsoring those academic endeavours," Banerjee claimed. While there is a need to learn many languages, including English, she said, one should not forget the mother tongue. "The sweetness of Bengali is all-pervading," she added. Additionally, Banerjee said that so far, 93 lakh students have benefitted from the 'Kanyashree' scheme, which is aimed at preventing child marriages. She assured that the number would surpass one crore next year. She said that her government has spent ₹17,000 crore for implementing the scheme, which has also received the United Nations' recognition. "Due to Kanyashree, dropout rates at the primary, secondary and higher secondary levels have dropped. Dropout rates at the primary level are zero," she added.
India Today
26 minutes ago
- India Today
Mamata's Bangla film diktat and the Devdas syndrome
It was Assamese filmmaker Pramathesh Chandra Barua who turned Sarat Chandra's Devdas into a movie in 1935 and made the tragic hero a legend. The Bengali film in which Barua played the eponymous hero was an instant commercial hit, and spawned several Hindi versions over the decades but couldn't match the OG film's success. Devdas isn't just a film but has come to represent the journey of films in India. Devdas has also become synonymous with a person who wallows in Devdas of 1935 witnessed success when the Bengali film industry was known worldwide. It is the same industry that has slid and needs corralling from the giant Hindi film industry, August 13, the West Bengal government of Mamata Banerjee made it a must for theatres in the state to screen Bangla films with at least one screening in the prime time slot of 3 PM to 9 pm. Bangla films every day, 365 days of the year. This sounds like a diktat, and a symptomatic treatment of deep-rooted issues. But some industry experts have lauded Bengal's move, calling it much-needed."Film business is best left to the law of demand and supply," says Avijit Ghosh, senior journalist and author of multiple books on Indian cinema."It is important to nurture local film industries, but this is not the right way," Ghosh tells India Today Digital. He says "Subsidising shooting, giving easy loans to producers, and tax-free status to films" are better ways to boost regional film Borpujari, a filmmaker who has won the National Film Award twice, welcomes West Bengal's decision. He says even European nations have strong film policies to support local cinema to prevent them from being gobbled up by idea is to give equal screening opportunity to regional films over the Hindi film the success of Devdas in Bengali in 1935, Barua directed the Hindi version of the film the following year with KL Saigal in the lead. That didn't match the original film's by 1939, the Bengali film industry, based in Calcutta (now Kolkata) was to hit a rough patch from which it would never return to its SCREEN RESERVATION MIGHT HELP REGIONAL CINEMATalking about the Bengal government's move, Borpujari sites Maharashtra's example."Maharashtra already has something like this, and it has benefitted the Marathi film industry to a great extent, bringing in audiences to the theatres," Borpujari says such steps are needed even for Assam, his native state, as it is a major struggle to get screening space in the face of Bollywood film releases which dominate all screen space due to bulk regional films doing well have to be pulled down from theatres because of Bollywood's dominance a very good step to support local cinema. Assam needs something like this. Though Assam doesn't yet produce as many films as Bengal or Maharashtra per year, a workable model needs to be found," suggests move to boost the Marathi film industry by reserving screen time has worked because of the state's film-making infrastructure, which ironically, has developed with the rise of reservation in Bengal might be fine, but does the Bangla film industry produce enough movies to attract June, 13 Bangla movies vied for theatre space with filmmakers questioning why they weren't getting enough shows, according to a report in The Times of big question is if good-quality content is available as it has been a complaint that the industry was resorting to cheap remakes of South blockbusters. When the original films are available on OTT, will anyone go to the theatres to watch remakes? Will lack of good content turn theatres into ghost buildings?EXODUS OF TALENT AND BENGAL GOVT'S FILM DIRECTIVEAvijit Ghosh, whose many books include Cinema Bhojpuri, says, "Putting the onus on film distributors and theatres isn't a democratic way of encouraging local films".advertisement"In the past, different states have imposed similar diktats with indifferent results," he adds, hinting that the outcome might not really be positive for the Bangla film fact, Assam, during the peak of Ulfa-led insurgency, saw a ban on Hindi movies after threats from the outfit. Dozens of theatres shut too witnessed an undeclared ban on Hindi movie screenings for two decades. People defied the ban in 2023 to watch the Vicky-Kaushal starrer Uri, which was based on India's surgical Ghosh suggests instead of a blanket diktat is that the Bengal government diagnose the deep-rooted problems before offering a treatment."The Bengal government should be looking deeper into the problems ailing the film industry, which was once famous globally," Ghosh tells India Today Bengali film industry, now referred to as Tollywood, was India's foremost till around 1939, when World War II threat of aerial bombing of Calcutta by Japanese forces during WW II got theatres in the city to shutter and industry stalwarts to relocate to Bombay (now Mumbai).The impact of this migration was clearly visible in the current state of the Bangla film the wartime exodus of talent to Bombay, Bengal's film industry struggled to reclaim its former dominance, but it retained cultural prestige through the rise of the parallel cinema movement in the 1970s and like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, and Ritwik Ghatak kept Bangla cinema in the global conversation, while commercial hits from Uttam Kumar to Prosenjit Chatterjee drew mass audiences at over the last two decades, the industry has been plagued by an overreliance on formulaic remakes of South Indian blockbusters, leading to creative stagnation. Srijit Mukherji's arrival briefly offered a breath of fresh air, blending intelligent storytelling with box-office appeal. Yet, despite occasional good films, the industry has largely continued down the same repetitive path. It has been struggling to balance artistry with mass TURNS ACTORS INTO POLITICIANSIf Bangla film industry is to be resurrected, it has to be supported with financing and infrastructure, and not knee-jerk solutions."These methods [resorted to by Bengal] are shortcuts, which seek to avoid the real issue for populist reasons," says Ghosh, the author of When Ardh Satya Met Himmatwala: The Many Lives of timing of the move by the Trinamool Congress-led state government makes one question the Bengal is headed for Assembly election in 2026, and Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool is taking on the BJP with 'Bhasha Andolan' or language agitation as a key Congress's greatest contribution to Bengals film industry is to turn stars into Moon Moon Sen and Dipankar Dey to Soham Chakraborty, Dev, Nusrat Jahan, Mimi Chakraborty, Neel Bhattacharya and Saayoni Ghosh, the list is really also blame Trinamool's nepotism and politics of vengeance against actors and filmmakers among the reasons for the slide in the industry, which was gathering some pace since is exactly why the move of screen reservation is accused of being motivated by politics and wallowing in self-pity, just like the tragic hero, is a metaphor for loser biggest tragedy with Devdas is that though many around him sympathise with him, no one seems resolute enough to make him kick the Devdas, the Bangla film industry too needs help and support, not sympathy. Bangla filmmakers are inheritors of legends like Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Rituparno Ghosh and Aparna Sen. The way ahead should be one of pride, not of self-pity.- EndsTune InMust Watch
NDTV
31 minutes ago
- NDTV
As Top Court Reserves Decision On Delhi's Stray Dogs, Key Points From Earlier Order
The Supreme Court has reserved its order on petitions challenging its August 11 directive to remove all stray dogs from Delhi-NCR streets and confine them permanently in shelters. A B ench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria reserved its verdict on the pleas. No immediate relief was granted to petitioners demanding a stay on the August 11 ruling, which triggered protests from animal activists and dog lovers. This means the drive to remove stray dogs from streets and move them to shelter homes will continue. The court also criticised the authorities for failing to implement existing guidelines for animal control. 10 Takeaways: The August 11 ruling was issued in response to rising dog-bite incidents and rabies cases in the Delhi-NCR region. The court directed authorities to create shelters for at least 5,000 stray dogs within six to eight weeks. Authorities were told to immediately begin rounding up all stray dogs and placing them in shelters. The court ruled that captured dogs must not be released back into public spaces. The court mandated authorities to simultaneously build shelters and capture stray dogs. A special enforcement force is to be formed for the relocation exercise. CCTV cameras are to be installed in shelters to ensure no animals are released or removed unlawfully. The court prohibited mistreatment, cruelty, overcrowding, or starvation of the animals. An adoption scheme for the sheltered dogs is to be initiated, but adopted animals cannot return to the streets. A helpline to report dog bites was to be set up within one week. Authorities were ordered to capture any dog involved in a bite incident within four hours of a complaint. The Delhi government was directed to publish rabies vaccine stock, availability, and monthly treatment data. Any obstruction to the order's implementation would be treated as contempt of court. One recent ruling by Supreme Court Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan ordered removal of all strays to shelters, disregarding the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules. Justice Pardiwala said, "Pick up dogs from all localities and shift them to shelters. For the time being, forget the rules." The ABC Rules, 2023, require stray dogs to be sterilised and returned to the same locality after treatment. Chief Justice BR Gavai said he will "look into" the matter to resolve the legal contradiction. The August 11 order has been welcomed by several Resident Welfare Associations, citing public safety concerns. The order has been criticised by animal rights activists, celebrities and some political leaders as inhumane and impractical due to funding and infrastructure challenges.
