Mamata mandates daily diet of primetime Bengali movies in every cinema

The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government has on 13 August, Wednesday, issued a notice making it mandatory for all cinema halls across the state to screen regional-language movies — read: Bengali films — during the prime time slot, on every single screen, effective immediately, an official reportedly told PTI.

‘Prime time’ in this instance is being defined as the duration after the matinee show, so from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. — typically the hours when movie halls expect the highest footfall.

According to the notification, multiplexes must dedicate at least one prime-time slot exclusively to Bengali movies on each of their screens.

"This decision reflects the state government's long-standing efforts to encourage regional cinema and ensure that Bengali films receive adequate exposure and commercial opportunity in their home state," the official said.

The notification also mentions that amendments to the West Bengal Cinemas (Regulation of Public Exhibitions) Rules, 1956, will be made in due course to align with the new directive.

This has been a longstanding demand from Tollywood, as well as a campaign from other advocacy groups in West Bengal such as the Bangla Pokkho.

But while the move certainly should prove a significant boost for the local film industry, potentially boosting box office figures as well as attracting more investment, it can hardly be ignored that this notice comes at a time when speakers of the Bengali language — across socio-economic demographics — are repeatedly seeing almost institutionalised discrimination and prejudice in other states.

The equation of ‘Bengali’ with ‘Bangladeshi’ and in turn with ‘jihadi’ or ‘infiltrator’ or ‘illegals’ has been repeatedly making headlines, with the most recent incident just this day seeing a New Town, Kolkata techie's family turned away from a Noida hotel ostensibly by order of the Uttar Pradesh police!

Of course, the worst sufferers are the socioeconomically disprivileged, migrant labourers who are even being pushed past the national borders, into No-Man's Land, towards Bangladesh — which in turn wants nothing to do with them — while despairing family members run from pillar to post to bring them back home and prove they are legitimately Indians and not using ‘fake IDs’.

The Trinamool Congress has responded with vociferous indignation, reminding the nation its national anthem and national song are both written by Bengali poets — Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay — respectively, and initiating a 'Bhasha Andolon' to foreground pride in the Bengali language.

The chief minister herself has led many a rally in rural and suburban Bengal, and vowed to speak more Bangla herself in solidarity with those facing harassment for their Bengali identity.

With PTI inputs