Mamata's intervention resolves Tollywood deadlock, new serial episodes from today

Kolkata: The ongoing impasse of Bengal's tele-industry has finally been resolved with the intervention of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The work of the industry, which had come to a standstill for the last few days, will resume on Friday morning.

After the meeting with representatives of all the stakeholders including artistes, producers and technicians, the Chief Minister said: "I am happy as the work in the industry is going to resume on Friday morning. As a result, everyone can finally see new episodes from Friday onwards and older ones will no longer be telecast."

Stating that she is also a viewer of Bengali TV serials, Banerjee said that the older episodes were being telecast as no shooting took place for the past few days.

In the meeting held at Nabanna on Thursday evening, Soumitra Chatterjee was also present and he appreciated the move of the Chief Minister to settle the impasse.

A decision to set up a joint conciliatory committee was taken up in Friday's meeting. Members of the committee will meet at least once every month to settle any issue that crops up, so that the industry functions smoothly. The Chief Minister said: "A conciliatory committee has been set up with the state Youth Services and Sports minister Aroop Biswas as its chairman and Soumitra Chatterjee as its main advisor. Director of Shree Venkatesh Films Shrikant Mohta is the vice-chairman of the committee. Prosenjit Chatterjee, Arindam Ganguly, producers Nispal Singh Rane and Saibal Banerjee and TV serial writer Leena Ganguly are members of the committee. Swarup Biswas and Aparna Ghatak will be the members as representatives of the technicians. Since the television channels play a major role in marketing and distribution, Sagnik Ghosh of Star Jalsha, Samrat Ghosh of Zee Bangla and Rahul Chakraborty of Colours Bangla will also be members of the committee."

In the same breath, Banerjee said: "The members will be holding meetings every month. They will be discussing among themselves if any problem crops up and reach a solution so that no one gets deprived and the industry functions smoothly."

Banerjee further said that the issues related to the payment of artistes within the 15th of every month has been discussed as well. The committee members will further follow up if any new issue crops up and come to a solution as early as possible as there are ardent viewers of Bengali TV serials all across the world.

Thanking everyone coming for the meeting within a short notice, Banerjee said: "Let everything get solved and the industry function properly as Durga Puja is round-the-corner."

She further said that the impasse had been going on for the past few days and such an issue has cropped up after a long time. But the problem had not taken a major shape and full-fledged work is going to resume from Friday morning.

"Thousands of people work in the industry, which is very popular and has a lot of potential to create job opportunities. It is also the pride of Bengal. So, its smooth functioning is quite crucial," Banerjee added, saying women in almost every household watch TV serials. Even a large section of men are regular viewers.

At the end, Soumitra Chatterjee said: "A lot of thanks to the Chief Minister as her intervention has helped in solving many issues and I am hopeful that the industry will grow further after this."