Kolkata: The West Bengal chit fund is getting bigger each day. It has now turns out that ponzi schemes in the state financed not just media houses but Tollywood films as well. In the past four years, at least one in three films has been produced by groups that run ponzi schemes.
Rose Valley, a deposit-taking company which is now under the MCA scanner, has produced 18 films including three National Award-winning ones. The Prayag group of companies, also under probe, is building a film city with none other than Shah Rukh Khan as its brand ambassador. But the industry is worried at what it sees as a mere brand-building exercise by the chit funds.
Arijit Dutta, former President of Eastern India Motion Pictures Association, said, "There are about 18 chit fund companies which have shown interest in producing films or have produced films." Filmmaker Sumon Mukherjee said, "They have no background in cinema, no understanding, no concern about the future of cinema. They just have some loose money, illegal money coming in and they want to use it."
Rahul Mukherjee, a first time director is now scrambling for producers to finance his film. His producer, a chit fund company, deserted the project and went hiding after the crackdown on the Saradha group. "80 per cent of the film is done, but now we cannot complete it without funds. So it has stopped," Rahul said....
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08:42 AM, Apr 29, 2013
As we celebrate 100 years of cinema, we go back in time to see how the pioneers treated homosexuality on celluloid. ...
08:20 AM, Feb 27, 2013
A Bengali film has courted controversy after its director alleged political discrimination by the government. The Censor Board in Kolkata denied approval to 'Kangal Malsat', a film by Suman Mukhopadhyay. ...
11:59 PM, Feb 26, 2013
A Bengali film has courted controversy after its director alleged political discrimination by the government. The Censor Board in Kolkata denied approval to 'Kangal Malsat', a film by Suman Mukhopadhyay. ...
07:36 AM, Feb 25, 2013
Oddly, nothing in the form of a biography has been written before about Bengal's most memorable actor, Uttam Kumar, in English. Veteran film critic Swapan Mullick's 'Mahanayak Revisited' goes behind the professional life and public face of Bengal's most idolized actor to reveal little-known details of the stars unconscious power in the film industry for more than thirty years,the dazzling achievements dampened by dud disappointments, the aberrations attendant on a...
04:56 PM, Feb 22, 2013
Konkana Sen Sharma has returned to Bengali cinema with 'Shunya Awnko'. ...
04:56 PM, Jan 08, 2013
Noted filmmaker Aparna Sen talks about her most memorable movies. ...
03:46 PM, Jul 07, 2012
There is a famous interview of actor Mithun Chakraborty by veteran journalist Ali Peter John that I never tire of reading over and over again with undiluted fascination. I often wish it was me who had conducted that interview. The tremendously talented actor, who turns 62 on June 16, is a symbol of both defiance and hope for millions of Bengalis who have been shamed into accepting that they are...
11:59 AM, Jun 16, 2012
Kolkata: The new wave Bengali cinema has met success at the box office and also won critical acclaim at the same time, but eminent Malayali filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan dismisses the phenomenon as a 'compromise'. "I cannot appreciate the trend. It is a compromise on the part of the filmmakers. They are doing something which is a submission to the demands of the market," Gopalakrishnan said during a recent visit to...
11:43 PM, Jun 08, 2012
The 90s' actor who had refused to play the second lead in Bollywood movies said he had reasons to sign on the dotted line for 'Shanghai'. ...
05:04 PM, Apr 25, 2012
Kolkata: Veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee, who starred in 14 celluloid classics of Satyajit Ray, says working with the master filmmaker was an exciting learning process. And he continues to inspire, even 20 years after his death. Saluting Ray's poetic, lyrical and artistic qualities, Chatterjee told IANS in an interview: "He is a special kind of poetic, lyrical, artistic visionary. If you see his films you can feel that such poetic,...
07:11 PM, Apr 23, 2012
Kolkata: After two back-to-back successful films, 'Autograph' and 'Baishe Srabon', filmmaker Srijit Mukherjee is all set to face the camera in this year's national award winner Anjan Dutta's film 'Dutta vs Dutta'. Srijit, 34, who had earlier turned up in Aparna Sen's 'Iti Mrinalini' in a significant role, said he would not speak much about his new assignment. "Anjan da is my mentor who has helped me evolve into a...
02:36 PM, Apr 03, 2012
Apur Sansar: For Apur Sansar, the final film in the Apu Trilogy, the great director plucked a young radio announcer and small-time theater actor from anonymity to play the titular role. Soumitra Chatterjee. Nurtured by Ray's genius, Soumitra brought to the world of light and shadows the unforgettable character of Apu, boyishly handsome, romantically intense and poetically fragile, journeying on the lyrical road of life, pushing aside the poverty, despondency...
12:03 PM, Mar 23, 2012
New Delhi: He turned down a national award 11 years back but legendary Bangla actor Soumitra Chatterjee is proud to recieve this year's Dada Saheb Phalke award, the highest recognition in Indian cinema. The 77-year-old actor had turned down the special jury award for best actor in 2001 to protest the bias of national film awards committee in selecting mainstream cinema. This time, however, the jury chose Soumitra over veterans...
05:26 PM, Mar 22, 2012
Kolkata: Iconic Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee said his being named for the Dada Saheb Phalke award " the highest honour in Indian cinema " is a recognition of his hard work in the last 53 years and expressed gratitude to directors like Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and others for honing his acting skills. Chatterjee, 77, said it was an "emotional moment" for him and he would receive the award on...
03:54 PM, Mar 22, 2012
New Delhi: Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee will receive the 2011 Dada Saheb Phalke Award for lifetime contribution to cinema. Chatterjee, 77, who has won a National Award in 2008 for his film 'Podokkhep', is an iconic actor in Bengali cinema with a career spanning over half a century. Sources said the award jury has finalised 77-year-old Chatterjee's name and an announcement in this regard would soon be made. Recognised...
07:23 PM, Mar 21, 2012
Kolkata: Popular television actress and model Pooja Bose said she was ecstatic about her debut Bengali movie -- the most expensive Bengali feature film made till date. "I am very happy to be the part of the team. I have always dreamt of working in a Bengali film which has now has come true," the bong beauty said here. The movie, 'Macho Mastana', with a budget of Rs 7 crore...
02:35 PM, Feb 17, 2012
Kolkata: Actor Rahul Bose today hailed the resurgence in Tollywood, crediting young filmmakers for giving Bengali cinema a 'new birth'. "I call it middle of the road cinema. The (new Bengali) films are not art house nor commercial. They are giving box office revenues but are content driven, which is attracting the masses," Bose, in town to inaugurate a multiplex in neighbouring Howrah, said. "In between there was a slump...
01:01 PM, Feb 10, 2012
Mumbai: Three-time national award winning actor Mithun Chakraborty says it is important for him to work in off-beat films because this keeps him grounded. "Such films (off-beat films) pull you down from stardom to the ground and makes you feel human, and that is what brings me to such films," Mithun, who plays the lead role in Bengali film 'Nobel Chor' Wednesday said at an event at the ongoing 13th...
06:26 PM, Oct 20, 2011
