Documentaries to woo voters in North Kolkata

Kolkata: In a bid to enthuse voters in North Kolkata to exercise their voting rights during the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission will soon shoot a dozen of short documentaries. The North Kolkata constituency will have polls on May 19 which is the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

"We are planning to have Ek Dojon Goppo — a collection of 12 short stories depicting the special flavour that we associate with North Kolkata. The adda culture, the College Street 'Boipara', the food of Dacres Lane and the iconic structures in this part of the city will be captured through which the message of importance of casting voting rights will be delivered," said Dibyendu Sarkar, District Election Officer (DEO), North Kolkata.

It may be noted that North Kolkata has the least voter turnout ratio in Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the last three Lok Sabha polls. In 2014, it had a turnout of only 66.08 percent, when the state's average stood at a whopping 82.22 — one of the highest in the country.

"The idea generated from Satyajit Ray's Ek Dojon Goppo as we feel Bengalis are very interested in stories and we feel that if we can reach out to them through narrations of everyday life, it may yield positive results and motivate them," Sarkar added.

Sources in the DEO, Kolkata North office added that a team of 10 from a popular group theatre and another five-member team of cameraman and technicians have started shooting at different locations of the city.

The DEO is hopeful of readying the documentaries for telecasting by the end of this month. DEO, North Kolkata, will use the social media platform for telecasting the documentaries to woo the young generation who are often reluctant to come to the booths.