Bengali Television industry: Mamata Banerjee resolves disputes in no time

They say it’s a one-man army, but when it comes to West Bengal politics and governance, it’s a one-woman army. Not even a leaf can be plucked from a tree without the intervention of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The charismatic Banerjee on Thursday resolved a long standing issue of the entertainment industry just by the drop of a hat. The issue between the producers of television soaps and actors and other artists came to an end with the intervention of Ms Banerjee, and that too in a cordial meeting involving all the parties.

According to reports coming from the eastern state of India, the matter had gone from bad to worse after top stars and producers stopped seeing each other eye to eye following allegations of irregular pay and long-hour shoots. “It came to such a situation that every Bengali entertainment channel started showing old and already telecast episodes for quite some time as the shoots had stopped completely,” a source in the television industry said.

The details of the meeting are still not available, but the news of an end to the impasse is relieving for the artists and unit members as well. It is a well-known fact that many kitchens are run based on the television soaps and any interruption in that may affect thousands of unit members more than the stars and producers.

However, Banerjee’s intervention is seen as an out-of-the-box thinking and even breaching protocol. Since the matter should have been dealt with care, the minister in charge Aroop Biswas should have ideally met the warring groups to resolve the matter. On the contrary, the CM went out of her to take the matter in her own hands and resolve the issue in no time, which is quite unprecedented if the protocol is anything to go by.

Earlier also, Banerjee made successful attempts in the television to keep the show going.