Bengali filmmakers criticise ‘attempt to slander an entire brotherhood’ as director accused of sexual misconduct

Kolkata: Over 50 filmmakers from the Bengali film industry on Sunday issued a statement expressing their anger over alleged attempts to discredit the entire fraternity after allegations of sexual misconduct were levelled against a well-known director.

Referring to the recent decision of the Directors' Association of Eastern India (DAEI) to suspend the accused director, the filmmakers' body said that such an incident should not be used to tarnish the image of the entire association by making wild allegations about the 'casting couch'.

“We have already made it clear that if anyone is found guilty, he should not be protected and strict action must be taken against him. Our union has already taken steps in this regard. But we will oppose any attempt to use an incident as a tool to slander the entire director community,” the statement said.

The signatories of the statement included Kaushik Ganguly, Parambrata Chatterjee, Indranil Roy Choudhury, Soukarjya Ghosal, Abhijit Guha, Sudeshna Roy, Anjan Dutt, Ashok Biswanathan, Haranath Chakraborty and Subrata Sen.

The DAEI recently suspended filmmaker Arindam Sil indefinitely for accusing an actress of sexual misconduct on the set of a film.

Sil had claimed that the DAEI had made a unilateral decision without listening to his version and expressed regret if he had “accidentally touched” anyone during filming to explain a scene.

In a letter to the State Commission for Women, he also apologized for any such “unintentional behavior.”

In their statement on Sunday, the directors said they would jointly take legal action if any defamatory statements were made by any party in the Bengali film industry against the directors as a group.

The statement followed allegations from some quarters that the practice of casting couching by filmmakers was widespread in the Bengali film industry.