Veteran artistes of Bengali cinema felicitated in Kolkata

Lolita Chatterjee,Arati Das (Miss Shefali),Bulbul Choudhury and Jaya-shree Sen were felicitated by ICSI.

The Eastern India Regional Council of The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (EIRC of ICSI) had organised a panel discussion on Corporate Social Responsibility featuring prominent artistes,directors and technicians of Bengali cinema. The panel discussion was actually a prelude to felicitate six veteran artistes,who were currently in distress,either financially,or in terms of disease,loneliness or old age,for their valuable contribution to the industry. This was a small initiation on the part of the EIRC of ICSI,probably the first of its kind ever taken by any Institute as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, said Mamta Binani,chairperson of the organization.

Cheques of Rs.25,000 each were handed over to the six artistes of which two,namely Sambhu Bhattacharya and Gita Dey,could not be physically present because they were too ill to come. Gita Dey passed away recently. However they were felicitated along with Lolita Chatterjee,Arati Das (Miss Shefali),Bulbul Choudhury and Jaya-shree Sen. Basudeb Bagchi,Chairman,Prayag Group of Companies that is currently building a massive film city in a small town near Kolkata,made this possible by funding the cheques.

Filmmaker Sandip Ray was guest of honour and the panel guests who addressed the audience were prominent veterans of the industry such as actress Meenakshi Goswami,actor Biplab Chatterjee,director of corporate films Saibal Mukherjee and fashion designer Agnimitra Paul. Meenakshi Goswami lamented that when word goes around that an old artiste is unwell,the industry takes it for granted that the said actor will not work again. It is sad because everyone falls ill from time to time and dropping an older person on grounds of assumed ill-health on the basis of rumours deprives the person of work without reason,penalising him or her economically and emotionally, she said. Biplab Chatterjee spoke about the dearth of proper marketing,promotion and distribution infra-structure as a result of which from the 100 Bengali films produced over 2010,at least 20 did not reach the theatres and therefore the audience at all,leading to big losses to producers,who might shy away from producing again. His complaint was mainly about the way technicians in the industry working within or without the studio system suffer for lack of organisational support such as medical benefits,sick leave,and so on in a working environment where empathy towards technicians and fellow-artistes is conspicuous by its absence.

Agnimitra Paul defined corporate social responsibility as similar to charity that should begin at home. She added that as a mother,she invested her son with qualities of social responsibility so that he grows up to be a citizen with feelings for less privileged fellow humans. Professionally too,she did her own bit as fashion designer towards fulfilling her commitment towards social responsibility. Sandip Ray,Biplab Chatterjee,Meenakshi Goswami and Agnimitra Paul personally handed over the cheques to the artistes of yesteryear.