Kolkata: Ritwik grand niece stakes claim to works

KOLKATA: Who owns the film rights of Ritwik Ghatak now? On Sunday, documentary photographer and author of ‘Life after Ritwik Ghatak’ Nabarupa Bhattacharjee posted on FB that she is the new settlor of the Ritwik Memorial Trust, which owns the rights of films and unfinished works of the filmmaker. According to her, these rights were legally transferred to her in 2017 by Ghatak’s wife, Surama.
The post generated reactions from various quarters, including Ghatak’s niece Aroma Dutta who is a parliamentarian in Bangladesh. After the demise of Surama in 2018, questions surfaced regarding the right owner of the legendary maker’s films, scripts and personal collections. Ghatak’s two daughters had passed away earlier. Ritaban had not been keeping well for some time now. Explaining her relationship with the Ghataks, Bhattacharjee told TOI, “Surama Ghatak was the younger sister of my grandmother, Kanaklata Bhattacharjee. My grandfather, Nipendranath Bhattacharjee, and author Bijan Bhattacharjee were cousins.” While working on the book, Nabarupa claims to have noticed that Surama was “worried” about who will take care of her belongings and continue with the work of the Trust. “Surama thamma, I feel, has always been misunderstood. Through the book, we brought out her side of the story. That touched her deeply. Out of love, she took this decision to include my name as the settlor of the trust,” she said.
Speaking to TOI from Dhaka, Dutta said, “Ritwik Ghatak belongs to the entire world. This property can’t belong to any individual. The Ritwik Ghatak Memorial Trust should be taken up by the state government of Bengal and Films Division of India. To my utter surprise, this lady claims ownership of the Trust. Neither does she belong to the Ghatak family, nor is she from the film fraternity. I have also spoken to my relatives and members from the film fraternity on this issue. Justice needs to be done.”
Meanwhile, Bhattacharjee said, “The right is with the trust of which Ritaban kaka is a trustee and I am the settlor. The royalty now belongs to Ritaban Ghatak and me. But because of Ritaban kaka’s health issues, I have added a new beneficiary to the trust. He is my father, Nabarun Bhattacharjee. He is the chairman of the Jupitar Group of Industries. Ritaban kaka no longer participates in any work related to the Trust.” Going by her views, any organisation that wants to buy the rights of Ghatak’s films or restore them has to get in touch with her for consent.
“I will be making important decisions once and when I join the dots of the Trust’s past commitments. I will be forming a new trust/foundation under the mother trust. The personal belongings of Ghatak is being catalogued and conserved and will come out in the public domain in some time.”