After Supreme Court verdict, Anik Dutta's political satire Bhobishyoter Bhoot releases tomorrow
Kolkata, Apr 4 (IBNS): After receiving a favourable judgement last month, director Anik Dutta's Bengali political satire Bhobishyoter Bhoot (Future of the Ghosts), which was pulled down from theatre houses without any prior notice by the Mamata Banerjee administration, is set to release here on Friday.
The Supreme Court on Mar 15 directed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's administration to resume the screening of Dutta's film.
The top court bench of justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud had directed the state's chief secretary and the police bosses to ensure that the film returns to the big screen after it was pulled off which many hall and multiplex owners attributed to a direction from the police.
Interacting with IBNS prior to the release of Bhobishyoter Bhoot, Dutta said: "I have no special reaction today. The film should have released normally. Now I want to know how the film was stopped. People who did this should be answerable."
Drawing sharp criticism, screening of Bhobishyoter Bhoot, reportedly a political satire from a filmmaker who was critical of the ruling government in West Bengal, was stopped across the state on Feb 15. The film was released after a due certification and was running full show on the first day.
Since the withdrawal of the film from the halls a month ago, in what was attributed to some direction from "higher authorities", the filmmaker and his cast and crew besides many creative people from Bengal- who are apparently not aligned to the ruling party- took to streets with regular protests.
The incident occurred months after Dutta had raised his eyebrows over an excessive use of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's pictures at government-sponsored film and cultural centre, Nandan, during the 24th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) in 2018.
The filmmaker had said the use of Mamata's pictures all over at Nandan at an international film festival venue was not a visual pleasure.
The director, who earlier made the superhit Bhooter Bhabishyat in 2012, had expressed his fear that he could face harassment for criticising the state government.
Sharp criticism followed the suspension of screening since the West Bengal Chief Minister herself is a vocal critic of the censorship of creative people under the regime of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled central government and had accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of imposing an "Emergency" like situation on people and free speech.
Bhobishyoter Bhoot, which is not a sequel to Bhooter Bhabishyat, has an ensemble cast.
Interestingly, the film also stars Moon Moon Sen, who is a sitting MP and ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Apart from West Bengal, Bhobishyoter Bhoot will also release in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi NCR, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
Image Credit: FB page of Bhobishyoter Bhoot
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