Calcutta has seen singing divas like Pam Crain and Usha Uthup become icons on the stage at Park Street eatout addresses like Blue Fox and Trinca’s respectively. But there will be none following in their footsteps coming up from watering holes east of the Bypass.
Women artistes are not allowed to take the microphone at any bar or pub in Salt Lake and New Town. Whether it is music or stand-up comedy, the authorities do not allow female performers on stage.
“This prohibition applies to places that serve alcohol. It is an old rule. Special permission needs to be taken online from the district magistrate's office for occasions like New Year's Eve. The police have no role in this," said a senior officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate.
According to Section 239 of the West Bengal Excise Act, no license retail vendor is allowed to hold any professional entertainment or dance or live music, vocal or instrumental, without the special sanction of the district magistrate.
“The North 24-Parganas district magistrate does not allow women artistes to perform in Salt Lake and New Town. Most places where music bands perform are restaurant cum bars and not nightclubs. The power is in his hand. We also want them to earn more revenue but we cannot do anything about it (the prohibition)," Basudev Sarkar, superintendent of excise, Bidhananagar, told The Telegraph Salt Lake.
Fade out
Salt Lake used to have dance bars like Ambrosia in DD Block where girls used to dance. But dancing was stopped in 2015 after an FIR alleging sexual exploitation in March by two sisters against their employer triggered a series of police raids in dance bars in the Baguiati-VIP Road area.
The Telegraph Salt Lake had reported on July 3 that year how the dance girls at a Sector I bar, being unable to gyrate anymore, were crooning along, often in indifferent tunes and varying scales, to the song played on the music system. Even that made customers order showers of currency notes on them, which would be done at their bidding by a bar employee with filmy flourish.
STRICTLY MEN: Raman Negi performs at Refinery 091 in end June. Picture by Bhubaneswarananda Halder
According to excise department sources, permissions stopped being granted for female gigs and acts altogether after a bar brawl in 2017 that led to a complete ban on nightclubs that remained open illegally well past their time schedule.
“This happened in May 2017. The authorities not only forced several nightclubs toshut down but also stopped issuing permits for women performers,” an official said.
Sayan Roy, one of the owners at Five Mad Men, a restaurant cum bar in Sector V, recalled: “This ban came into place after an untoward incident that took place at a nightclub called Shimmers. That was in 2017. They stopped live music completely in the area. In late 2018, we were allowed to play music again but on one condition — no woman should be performing on stage. In fact, we tried to organise a stand-up comedy show with a woman performer. We thought since there would be no singing, it
would not be a problem. But later we got a warning from the excise department saying if we made the same mistake again, Five Mad Men would be shut down altogether.”
Unfair bias
Rupsha Roy is one of the vocalists for a Calcutta-based band. She has been performing regularly with three or four male members all over Calcutta. However, whenever there is a gig in Salt Lake, especially Sector V, she has to sit out.
“I believe this is outright discrimination against women performers. All the members of the band are allowed to sing other than me. This happens only here and nowhere else in Calcutta. I have never faced this elsewhere in India also,” she said.
This directive, Sayan Roy argued, has no logic. “They say that any woman using the microphone is not allowed to go on stage. This is really strange because we have women staffers who work on night shifts. If safety is the issue then how can they allow them or women DJs? Only if someone uses the microphone to sing or do stand-up comedy, the authorities seem to have a problem.”
Some time back, he recalls, Bollywood playback singer Akriti Kakar performed in Salt Lake. “But special permission, channelled through political connections of the organisers, was used to make that happen. Even established singers are not allowed to perform in Sector V or New Town, he said, adding that a celebrity female singer had expressed interest to perform at his outlet but could not due to the bar.
“It would have been a sellout crowd if she could perform at our place,” he rued.
The superintendent of excise, Bidhananagar admitted that owners of the local bars and pubs might be losing business because of the prohibition.
“But the collector (district magistrate) believes that if we allow women dancers, singers or comedians to perform, the law and order situation might be adversely affected. So he has decided that even if revenue goes down, a ban should be in place.”
Usually, live performances are allowed three days a week at any restaurant. At the beginning of every month, all restaurant owners have to make a roster specifying on which days there would be live music. But they also have to specify in writing that all the performers are men.
The moment a woman, even if she is part of a band, is on that list, all permissions are cancelled by the Bidhananagar excise department and the district magistrate's office in Barasat, industry insiders said.
Speaking to The Telegraph Salt Lake, a senior official in the district magistrate’s office said on condition of anonymity: “I do understand that women performers may feel bad about this (prohibition). Pub-owners may also have certain issues that they would like to resolve. They should call our office, fix an appointment and discuss this directly. Discussion with all parties concerned will surely resolve the problem.”
Customers jive wih Terence Lewis in April at Refinery 091 Picture by Bhubaneswarananda Halder
Sudhir Ahuja, owner of Bakstage in Sector V, said: “We are losing out to competition. There is no such restriction on properties under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. A lot of politics is also at play here. As businessmen, we do not want to lose out on revenue. This is something that should be taken care of.”
Ramesh Agarwal, owner of Refinery 091, a gastropub with a bar in Sector V, said: “It is a politically motivated move. There is no law against women performing anywhere in India. But it is happening only in Sector V and New Town.”
The restaurant owners say they have met excise department officials and the district magistrate before, but there was no positive outcome.
“They said they would look into it, but nothing happened,” Ahuja said.