KOLKATA: The premises of Technicians’ Studio were buzzing with activity on Saturday morning as Tollywood technicians gathered in large numbers for the Swasthya Sathi registration drive.
The camp was organised after CM Mamata Banerjee approved a proposal by
actor and three-time
TMC MP Dev to bring
more than 7,000 Tollywood technicians under Swasthya Sathi. Dev visited the venue to review the progress of the registration.
The initiative comes amid growing public sparring in the Bengali film industry. Allegations surfaced that on Friday, Swarup Biswas, president of the Federation of Cine
Technicians and Workers of Eastern India, had asked members of several guilds not to participate in the registration drive. It was also claimed
that technicians who attended the camp might risk losing work. These developments have strengthened the perception that Tollywood is splitting
into two camps, one around Dev and the other around Swarup.
Also, on Saturday, Dev was accompanied by newly elected TMC Rajya Sabha MP and actor Koel Mallick.
“This health scheme was not created by Dev. Swasthya Sathi is a flagship programme of Mamata Banerjee.
Swarup da’s brother, Aroop Biswas, is a minister in the state government and Swarup
da himself is associated with the government. After that, how can he criticise the
CM and her health scheme?” Dev said.
Filmmakers Subrata Sen, Sudeshna Roy and Abhijit Guha, along with veteran actor and Artists’ Forum secretary Shantilal Mukherjee, were also present.
Dev said many technicians had approached him after their earlier health insurance expired. He recalled helping a fight master battling cancer who did not have a Swasthya Sathi card. “This scheme is for the people of Bengal. My fight is for the welfare of technicians without whom we are nothing,” he said.
Touching upon the ongoing debate around “ban culture” in Tollywood, Dev reiterated that the CM has always stood by the Bengali film industry.