Kamal Ghorui
Kolkata: Another production house in Kolkata, Tent Cinema, has come under the scanner after an actor lodged a complaint with the National Commission for Women on Thursday, alleging sexual exploitation by its head. The house, which has created popular Bengali and Hindi serials, such as ‘Titli’, ‘Krishnakoli’, ‘Ke Apon Ke Por’, ‘Joyee’, ‘Pocket Mein Aasmaan’, ‘Rishton Ka Manjha’, ‘Krishna Mohini’ and ‘Faltu’, has producer-director Susanta Das at its helm.Das replied to TOI’s initial message, saying he would let us know “his steps”. But subsequent calls and messages to Das from TOI went unanswered.The actor, who has a four-month-old daughter, alleged she was forced to quit acting due to sexual and mental harassment. “My husband fully supports my decision to lodge a complaint. I do not see any point in complaining to the state commission for women, which is headed by Leena Gangopadhyay. That’s why I approached the national commission,” she said.Belonging to a business family in Midnapore, the young woman had moved to Kolkata for studies, and began acting in TV serials for different production houses. “I used to stay alone in a flat in Santoshpur when I was doing the role of the sister-in-law of the lead character in ‘Deep Jwele Jai’. One day, after the scene went off well, I went back home happy and told my parents about it. A little later, he visited my flat unannounced, got sexually intimate, and threatened to remove my scene if I refused. He said if I didn’t agree, my scene would be chopped off on the edit table. That night he forced himself on me. This sexual harassment went on for four months,” she told TOI.Asked why she didn’t quit immediately or complain to the Artists’ Forum, she said, “I was too new and didn’t have the agency to protest. He threatened if I made the harassment public, he would convince my parents to take me back to Midnapore. Later, when I did speak out about my sexual harassment, I didn’t get much support from anywhere. I had to keep silent.”The protests over artists’ safety after Rahul Banerjee’s death reportedly revived her memories. “He would call up my parents and threaten them. I was a small-town girl and was told not to talk about it. I reluctantly went back to shoot. When I resisted, I faced mistreatment at work, including long waits till late at night before shoots. I quit during the lockdown, I was forced to change profession,” she said.
