West Bengal: Gorkhaland poster in latest Feluda web series provides twist in the tale

West Bengal: Gorkhaland poster in latest Feluda web series provides twist in the tale 

Still of the scene where the poster was visible

PRIYNKA DASGUPTA, TNN, 21 JUNE 2022, KOLKATA: Bengal’s favourite sleuth — Feluda — has found himself embroiled in a controversy over the use of a Gorkhaland poster in Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Feludar Goyendagiri’. While Satyajit Ray’s ‘Darjeeling Jamjamat’ never mentioned anything about Gorkhaland, Mukherji’s web series adaptation has scenes where Gorkhaland posters have been plastered on walls.

What’s rankled feathers is that the symbol used in some of the posters are not of Subhas Ghisingh’s GNLF party that was fighting for the cause in the 80s — the time when Mukherji has set his adaptation. Instead, it has a resemblance with Bimal Gurung’s Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) that was formed in 2007.

This ‘historical’ inaccuracy has become a bone of contention among cine-lovers as well as in political corridors. Many believe that there ought to have been more checks. “GNLF’s flag was first hoisted on April 5, 1980. That has no resemblance with the flag shown in this web series set in 1986. The flag that is shown in the series partially resembles one of a party called Prantya Parishad that advocated a separate state issue before 1980. It also partially resembles the GJM flag that came much later. Twisting history this way is wrong,” said Mahendra Chetri, spokesperson of GNLF.

Reacting to the controversy, Mukherji told TOI: “Like we use Quit India posters to denote the 40s or Naxalbari posters to establish 70s in films, Gorkhaland posters were used to denote the 80s in Darjeeling. And we just used the term Gorkhaland, not any political personality or party. But if in a couple of posters out of the several used, there is any symbol which doesn’t belong to that period, it is a technical and inadvertent error.”

Many blame Tollywood for its complacency and its conviction that viewers will easily overlook such errors. Others feel the root of the problem lies in the way Tollywood is churning out period pieces for the big screen and OTT platforms. The average budget per episode of a period OTT series in Bengali is between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 50 lakh. Bollywood spends Rs 3 crore for the same. An average Bengali period film is made on a Rs 2 crore budget. Hindi period films will need at least Rs 150 crore.

It’s easy to blame Tollywood’s producers for giving low production budgets. But investing more in the small-sized contemporary Bengali film market means huge risks and slim chances of financial recovery. “It is a huge problem attempting a period where these errors creep in due to the lack of resources in terms of time and budget,” Mukherji added.

A Bengali OTT series attempting to recreate a period gets shot in just 10 to 12 days while a feature takes 25 days. Mukherji himself completed the shooting for ‘Darjeeling Jamjamat’ in 11 days.