HC stay order on Nandan film timing

KOLKATA: Barely a week after the Sikkim' controversy, which caught the information and cultural affairs department on the wrong foot, another screening dispute cropped up at Nandan on Thursday. The producers of Bengali film Sthaniya Sambad', directed by Arjun Gourisaria and Moinak Biswas, that is scheduled for release at the auditorium on Friday, moved court against the Nandan authorities after the latter changed the show timing of the film. Calcutta high court stayed the decision to shift one of the two shows slated for 4pm to 1.45pm.
Moinak Biswas, co-director of the film, said that discussion on releasing the film on November 26 was on with the Nandan authorities since August. On November 15, a formal letter was given to Biswas from Nandan confirming the date and show timings 4pm and 6.15pm. "Accordingly, we went ahead with whatever publicity we could afford," Biswas said.
"On November 23, Nandan authorities told us that they were requesting' us to change the 4pm slot to 1.45pm, so they could show another film in the 4pm slot. But this would have been disastrous for us, as our film is being released in only one hall and only for a week," Biswas said.
Biswas then consulted Gourisaria, who is co-director, editor and producer of the film. Black Magic Motion Pictures, which is producing the film, decided to move court.
On Thursday, the high court directed the film to be released in accordance with the schedule promised by Nandan to Sthaniya Sambad' 4pm and 6.15pm.
The Nandan authorities claimed that they had written to the directors of the film conveying their decision to change the slot. "I had written to them about the changed timing of the show. As per our agreement, we could alter the slot if we felt it was necessary. Director Raja Sen had approached us with a request to screen his film Laboratory' at the 4.15pm slot. His film is based on a story by Tagore. Since this year is the bard's 150th birth anniversary, we felt it would be proper to give the film an early evening screening slot. We felt since Sthaniya Sambad' already had the 6pm evening slot, they would agree to it. Now that they have got an order from the court, we have decided to screen Laboratory' at 1.15pm," said Nilanjan Chattopadhyay, CEO of Nandan.
Meanwhile, it is reported that some tickets of Laboratory' had been sold by the Nandan authorities for Friday's 4pm show. Now it remains to be seen what the authorities do about it and whether those tickets are refunded.