KOLKATA: The home minister's promise to establish a theatre training institute in Bengal on the lines of FTII Pune has drawn a mixed response from the theatre community, with many expressing concerns about artistic freedom. BJP MLA Roopa Ganguly sought to allay those fears, saying the theatre community should keep faith in the new regime. She also insisted that every anti-government play can get staged too. Her assurance has prompted reactions from the theatre fraternity, with many now sharing the discrimination they faced behind the wings.
Voices from the Theatre Community
Actor Koushik Kar, who was isolated after joining BJP in 2021, is seeing a ray of hope. “Four of us who had joined BJP had faced systematic harassment. I was unceremoniously dropped from Sourav Palodhi's play ‘Ghum Nei’ because of my political ideology,” Kar said. He added that Palodhi even shared a post with the heading ‘get lost’, referring to him. Kar described being isolated, assaulted, maligned, and blacklisted. “I lost my bearings. Left with no work, I was pushed to the brink of committing suicide. Thankfully, I still decided to fight on and started writing. Five years of professional exile later, I finally returned to the stage just days before the Kolkata polls. The same people who once isolated me are now attending my shows of 'Ebar Khalanayaker Pala' and calling up to praise my work. I want all actors – irrespective of their political belief - to be freely able to do their work now,” Kar said.
Positive Reactions and Hopes
Actor Mia Maelzer, who was associated with the theatre fraternity of Bengal between 1999 and 2006, has welcomed Ganguly's comment. “In the late 1990s, theatre group Monirath founder Shantanu Bose was shocked to see that his play ‘Faust’ was abruptly discontinued from being staged at the Academy of Fine Arts,” Maelzer recalled. He worked with Bose until 2006 before moving out of Bengal. Actors Subrata Dutta and Sahidur Rahaman, also part of the group, later left the city. Bose eventually moved out as well and is now the dean of the National School of Drama. “Roopa-di's assurance that we will be able to do theatre without fear of being banned makes me extremely hopeful. This is the change theatre has long needed,” Maelzer said.
Criticism of the Clique System
Maelzer also hit out at the clique that worked in the theatre fraternity. “Actors like me who were class toppers didn't receive any support while those who weren't received lumpsum theatre grants,” he stated. He expressed hope that ever since the new regime came to power, decades of such incongruities will be put to rest. “If artists are not allowed to express their voices in a society freely then its moral decay is bound to happen one day. We are all returning soon if we find the atmosphere is ready to accept us back,” Maelzer concluded.
