Union information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar announced here on Monday that the Centre would institute an award in the name of legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
The decision to institute the award, to be on a par with the Dadasaheb Phalke award, comes in the backdrop of the Narendra Modi government’s continuous attempts to forge a Bengal connect in poll season.
Javadekar said this at a meeting organised under the banner of the National Film Development Corporation that was attended by the who’s who of the Bengali film industry at a south Calcutta hotel.
An actor considered close to Mamata Banerjee said the move to honour Ray shows the desperation of the BJP to fight the outsider tag that Trinamul constantly attacks it with.
“While the BJP continues to rely heavily on leaders from outside to run its poll campaign in Bengal, it is trying to reach out to the elite voters in Bengal by instituting an award in Ray’s name,” the actor said.
Actors Rituparna Sengupta, Abir Chatterjee, Mamata Shankar, filmmakers Arindam Sil, Goutam Ghose, Srijit Mukherji, Anik Dutta, Kaushik Ganguly were among those at the event. While Sil and Ghose have shared the stage with Trinamul supremo Mamata Banerjee in the past, Dutta is considered close to the Left Front.
Emerging from the meeting, filmmaker Sil told reporters: “We discussed how Bengali cinema can be developed and the development should be holistic.”
Actors Rudranil Ghosh and Hiran Chatterjee, both of whom have recently joined the BJP, were also present at the meeting that also had in attendance Union minister Babul Supriyo and BJP MP Roopa Ganguly.
