Kolkata: After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in West Bengal named actor and party leader Mithun Chakraborty as its cultural advisor on Friday, the latter announced 30 per cent subsidy for film productions shooting in the state.
A day before, during a programme to mark the birth centenary of Bengali legend Uttam Kumar, the actor-turned-politician had said that he had made a “special request” for the subsidy to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, to which the latter had agreed.
Speaking to reporters after the BJP government announced his new role, Chakraborty said: “We will try to bring back whatever we have lost. We are giving 30 per cent subsidy so that we can bring everyone, the whole of India, to Bengal. We are asking people to come to Bengal and shoot here.”
When asked about former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s threat to stage protest outside BJP leaders’ houses in Delhi, The actor-turned-politician retorted: “Whatever she (Mamata Banerjee) is saying, does it suit her? The ‘atrocities’ that she had mentioned, does it suit her?.. We are the ones who have endured all this. I do not insult anyone by speaking too much, but all this does not look good coming from her.”
Following the alleged attack on Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s party office, the former Chief Minister had accused the BJP of sending goons and spoke about her plans to take the protests in the matter to the national capital.
“How long will you 9Mamata Banerjee) continue with your atrocities? If the atrocities are not stopped, I will be personally going to New Delhi and stage protest demonstrations in front of the houses of the BJP leaders there,” the former Chief Minister had said in a Facebook Live video.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Adhikari made the announcement of Mithun Chakraborty’s new role while attending the foundation stone laying ceremony of “Uttam Kumar Film Centre” at New Town in the northern outskirts of Kolkata, earlier on Friday. The centre will be developed over a cost of Rs 25 crore, which the State Information and Cultural Affairs Department had already sanctioned.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that work of finalising the design of the centre will be left to the experts from the Bengali silver-screen world and the state government under no circumstance will interfere in the matter.
–IANS
