Shibpur controversy: After Swastika Mukherjee’s allegations, the producer stepped down

The controversy regarding the movie Shibpur took a new turn. Swastika Mukherjee earlier accused one of the producers, Sandeep Sarkar, of threatening her by sending her a sample of nude photos. Swastika also notified EIMPA (Eastern Indian Motion Pictures Association).  

Recently Swastika and the producers sat for a meeting at IMPA. According to the meeting's decision, the producer Ajanta Sinha Roy has removed Sandeep's name from the film. Ajanta told Anandabazar Online, “Sandeep did not send those emails. They were sent by a mysterious person named Ravi Sharma. But Sandeep has agreed to our proposal for the sake of the movie.” 

Ajanta also claimed that the entire incident was the brainchild of the director Arindam Bhattacharya. She said, “From the start, the director stopped us from contacting Swastika. Not only that, he has been taking money from me for the last year with different excuses. Ajanta also said that recently Arindam threatened her, and said that he can shut down the production office using influences. “Hence, without wasting more time, I lodged a complaint with the police. He is still messaging me, but I have not replied. Police will do the needful,” she said.  

Ajanta filed a complaint against Arindam at Charu Market Police Station last Monday. But what is Arindam's interest in this matter? Ajanta said, “I agreed to all his demands. Nothing is due to anyone in the unit. But he wanted to grab promotion of the film also. I refused.”

Anandabazar Online contacted Arindam Bhattacharya. He refused all accusations. He said, “They wanted to take the film's hard disc from the studio. I stopped them, according to their complaint. I went to Charu Market Police Station on Wednesday and talked.' But what about the complaints regarding extortion and threat? Arindam said 'nothing like that. Both sides will go to the police station. I will tell you if any decision is made.” 

Parambrata Chatterjee, Mamata Shankar, Kharaj Mukhopadhyay, and Rajatava Dutta are also in Shibpur. The film was due to be released in May. But Ajanta said that it will be postponed. 'We have to postpone, because we did not get much time for the promotion. Then several problems happened. How can it be released without addressing them?' She hopes that the film will be released in June.