Over the past two months, Rudranil Ghosh has traded the glitz of the silver screen for the gritty reality of campaign trail, tirelessly crisscrossing Bengal to garner support for BJP's Lok Sabha candidates, even though an earlier move to allegedly distance himself from the saffron camp led many to speculate about the actor’s political career.
Ghosh, who unsuccessfully contested the 2021 assembly polls from Bhawanipore on a BJP ticket, told PTI that he is grateful to the party for including him in the list of star campaigners alongside leaders like party chief J P Nadda, West Bengal leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari, and state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar.
Ghosh, who has acted in over 60 films in his two-decade-long career, was the subject of media attention recently when he quit multiple WhatsApp groups of BJP triggering speculations on whether he was severing ties with the party.
"Many party faithfuls added me to those groups out of love and respect, and the number had shot up to 70. My phone was getting clogged. I had to quit before the elections since I needed more space in my phone for other stuff. Nothing else should be read into that step," he said.
Admitting that there can be "bhalo-kharap laga" (good and bad feelings) for a person who has always enjoyed being among the masses, Ghosh said, "The rank and file in my party perhaps expected me to be fielded as a candidate, but then I realised my party had bigger plans for me." "Using my services step by step in organisational matters, the party wants me to be that face whose words are trusted by common people as I have always had my feet on the ground," he said.
Asked how exactly he felt after he was denied a ticket, Ghosh said "I would like to believe that I was not given a ticket because those who were chosen for nomination were the most suitable ones," he said, adding that there could still be "deficiencies" in him to fit the bill as a Lok Sabha poll candidate.
Regarding his industry colleagues choosing to stay with the ruling party, Ghosh, the cultural cell head of BJP in West Bengal, said, "Many close friends in the industry belonging to the ruling party are in regular touch with me. Among them, an MLA, spoke to me recently." He, however, chose not to reveal what transpired in those talks.
"Many actors, actresses, and filmmakers who still support Mamata Banerjee will come out openly against her after the BJP gains an upper hand in the parliamentary polls. This was unimaginable five years ago, but it will happen in just a few months. And that change will be just the beginning," he added.
Crediting the people of Bengal for making him what he is today, Ghosh said, "My 'connect' with my roots prompted me to rush to the side of the SSC and TET qualified candidates sitting in the open field braving rains and sun for over two years. I don't know what will happen to them." "If, despite witnessing the wrongs committed by the TMC in Bengal, the unimaginable level of corruption the party is steeped in, my friends in the industry decide to turn a blind eye to them, I don’t fault them," he said.
Asked to justify his frequent ideological shifts from associating with the CPI(M) first in the late 1990s, to shifting to TMC after 2011 and finally joining the BJP in 2021, Ghosh said, "If the people of West Bengal can be loyal to Congress, CPI(M), and TMC at different points of time and then shift their allegiance to the saffron camp gradually since 2019, why can’t I?" Ghosh maintained he found "a new direction under the leadership of Narendra Modi" and responded to the changing dynamics in Bengal's politics.
"The left was dislodged as people wanted to get rid of a regime that gradually became tainted by incidents like mass killings, autocracy, tyranny and brutal attacks on farmers in Singur. Then the TMC was brought in with the hope for change, but that was marked by unprecedented job-for-bribe corruption, rendering lakhs of educated youths jobless. We cannot continue with this regime any longer," he said.
"I was hooked to Modiji’s mission of good governance and shifted to BJP," he added.
Ghosh said that he found the appeasement policy of the left and TMC equally appalling.
"I was appointed the head of a committee by Mamata Banerjee whose job was to interact with various departments of the state secretariat Nabanna. I was even allotted an office. Had I wished to continue enjoying those perks, I would have had to be a mute spectator to injustices happening all around," he said, and added, "I acted on my conscience." Still basking in the audience's praise for 'Maidaan', a Bollywood biopic on a legendary coach who steered India to its first and only Asian Games win in football, he said, "I want to share the praises with my colleagues in the Tollygunge film industry, producers, directors, actors, technicians, and everyone who made me the actor Rudranil Ghosh today." "Even during this election phase, 'Maidaan' is getting housefull shows at theatres," he said, beaming with satisfaction.
Asked about his future priorities, Ghosh said he wanted to continue with the balancing act of films and politics.
"I am not like those who joined politics all of a sudden, being picked up as a candidate by a party. I am a politically conscious person. If others from my rival camps can keep maintaining that balance, so can I," he added.
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