Prosenjit, Dev write to CM as Hindi films push Bengali movies out of prime-time

KOLKATA: Imagine being one of the biggest stars and producers in Bengali cinema, a popular MP from the ruling party, and close to the CM, yet still having to fight for prime-time shows for your film in Bengal. That’s exactly where Dev finds himself again. Just a day after returning from flood-hit Ghatal with CM Mamata Banerjee, TMC MP and superstar Dev wrote a letter to her, not for a political cause, but for Bengali cinema.

His upcoming film ‘Dhumketu’, co-starring Subhashree, is set to release on August 14. But it’s clashing with Hrithik Roshan’s big-budget ‘War 2’ and distributors of the Hindi film have allegedly told Bengal exhibitors not to allot even a single show to Bengali films, demanding all four shows in single-screen theatres.

‘Dhumketu’ marks the much-awaited return of the most celebrated contemporary on-screen pair, Dev and Subhashree, after a decade and the Bengali film industry has high hopes from the movie.

This triggered a rare show of unity with Dev, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Srijit Mukherji, Kaushik Ganguly, Srikant Mohta and Nispal Singh writing to the CM, flagging the issue.

In response, minister Arup Biswas called a meeting at Nandan on Thursday. This isn’t new for Dev. In December 2024, ‘Khadaan’ faced similar trouble with Allu Arjun’s ‘Pushpa 2’ blocking screens. Dev had then apologised to fans, saying he couldn’t open advance shows due to the dominance of other-language films. But he promised to continue his for Bengali films.

Back in 2019 too, he raised his voice when ‘Password’ was being sidelined.

Now, while many in the Bengali film industry welcome the fact that top stars are speaking up, they also hope this fight isn’t just limited to the big names, the cause should be for every Bengali film,

big or small.